Volume 1: Introduction–Chapter 3 Summary

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Introduction

The author describes a trip to the ancient Roman town of Baiae in December 1818. In the cavern which was supposed to be the cave of the Sibyl of Cumae, the author and her companion enter a narrow passage, against the advice of their guides. After getting lost, they eventually discover a large, almost circular cavern, in which there is the skeleton of a goat.

When they sit down to rest, the author’s friend finds that the leaves and pieces of bark strewn about the cavern have writing on them, in a variety of ancient and modern languages, from Egyptian hieroglyphs to modern English and Italian. They decide that this must be the Sibyl’s Cave, as described by the Roman poet Virgil, and select some leaves in languages they can understand to take away with them. Then, with difficulty, they retrace their steps and return to their guides.

The author then says that she has returned many times to the cave and spent a long time deciphering and editing the messages on the leaves. She now presents the result of her labors, shaped into a consistent narrative, to the reader. She has tried to elucidate the mysteries as far as she can, though much about the writing on the leaves necessarily remains mysterious.

Chapter 1

The first-person narrator, Lionel Verney, introduces himself to the reader. He is an Englishman, writing in the year 2100, and his late father was a prominent nobleman and a friend of the king. Although Lionel’s father was a brilliant man, he was also dissolute, with a particular passion for gambling. He gambled away the family fortune and was often in financial difficulties. The king would assist him and pay his debts, but the queen disapproved of their friendship and tried to separate them. The king implored the elder Verney to change his ways and gave him money to enable him to pursue a more useful career, but Verney lost all the money at the gaming tables on the same night. He died in debt soon afterward, having appealed in vain to the king, leaving his wife with no resources and two children to support.

Lionel was the elder of the two children and was only five years old when his mother also died. He was cared for by a farmer, for whom he worked as a shepherd, and has no clear memories of his early life, but retained a sense of superiority to the peasants around him from his aristocratic background. He grew up with a wild, lawless disposition, continually challenging the authority of the adults who cared for him. His only sense of responsibility was toward his younger sister, Perdita, a beautiful child who was cold and solitary in her disposition. When Lionel grew to manhood and had to decide how he would spend his life, he was at a loss and felt like an outcast from society, since he was neither a peasant nor a nobleman.

Chapter 2

Lionel gives some historical background. The last king of England, his father’s former friend, abdicated in the year 2073, and England became a republic. The royal family became the earls of Windsor and lived at Windsor Castle.

The former royal family plan a trip to their mansion in Cumberland, the area of England where Lionel and his sister live. Perdita has heard good rumors of Adrian, the young earl of Windsor, and looks forward to seeing him, but Lionel is full of bitterness toward the whole family for their desertion of his father. He envies the earl and longs for revenge against him, despite...

(This entire section contains 983 words.)

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the fact that Adrian has personally done nothing to injure the Verney family.

Lionel begins to poach the game on the earl’s estate, principally to show his contempt for the earl himself. Eventually, he is caught and sent to prison, but after a day he is freed on Adrian’s own orders. He poaches again and is captured and released again. The third time he is caught poaching, Lionel is finally brought before Adrian himself. The earl receives him with great kindness. He is aware of the connection between their families and says that he and Lionel should be friends. Lionel is impressed by Adrian’s kindness and, later, by his intelligence and learning, which he seeks to emulate. Adrian also reveals that the king did not ignore the last appeal Lionel’s father sent to him. He never received it, and it has only recently been discovered. Lionel and Adrian quickly become close friends.

Chapter 3

Adrian secures for Lionel a position as private secretary to the ambassador in Vienna. Separated from Adrian, Lionel plunges into the dissolute society of the big city, an atmosphere to which he is unaccustomed. However, he finds his adventures in Viennese society unsatisfying and longs for Adrian’s company.

At this point in the narrative, Lionel gives an account of the career of a young nobleman called Lord Raymond, who left England to fight in the Greek wars and has now returned and become a favorite of the former queen, Adrian’s mother, now countess of Windsor. Rumors have reached Lionel that Lord Raymond may even become king, alongside reports that Adrian has gone mad. He therefore decides to return to England to support his friend.

Upon his return, Lionel discovers from Perdita that Adrian has been meditating on ways in which to make England a fairer country, diminishing the power of the aristocracy. His mother, who wants to restore the monarchy to power and regain her own royal status, has come to hate him because of these plans. When Lord Raymond arrived in Windsor, he captivated not only the countess, but also the girl with whom Adrian was in love, a Greek princess called Evadne. The loss of Evadne’s affections has now driven Adrian into a state of intense misery, on the verge of madness.

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Volume 1: Chapters 4–7 Summary

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