Eliza

By Godl, John

Book Id: WPLBN0100750547
Format Type: PDF (eBook)
File Size: 2.07 MB.
Reproduction Date: 2/6/2025

Title:	Eliza
Author:	Godl, John
Volume:
Language:	English
Subject:	Fiction, Drama and Literature, Colonial life
Collections:	Authors Community, Adventure
Historic Publication Date:	2025
Publisher:	All Romance Books - Oklahoma USA

Member Page:	John Godl
Citation APA MLA Chicago Godl, J. (2025). Eliza. Retrieved from http://gutenberg.cc/

Description
Based on a true story, a forgotten chapter of British colonial history. This e-book is available free of charge, however if you enjoy it and want to spread the love please consider making a donation (of any amount) to the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, to help an amazing group of men and women continue their amazing work. Click On: https://www.slhd.nsw.gov.au/rpa/donation.html

Summary
'ELIZA' is an historical drama written by John Godl and is based on the life and legend of a real woman called Eliza Emily Donnithorne (1826-1886), daughter of aristocratic judge James Donnithorne (1773-1852) who achieved fame and fortune in the service of the East India Company. In 1836 he retired to the Colony of New South Wales, Australia, a widower with his daughter Eliza, the only female of the family to survive the infamous Calcutta cholera outbreak years earlier which claimed countless lives on the sub-continent including her mother and two older sisters. An event which scarred him for life making him possessive of Eliza and prompted their emigration to the safer environs of Sydney, where he purchased a gracious Georgian manor house called 'Camperdown Lodge' which soon became a Mecca for colonial high society. The novel starts at the end of Eliza's life; she has recently died and her estate is open for public inspection, on the instruction of relatives in England her worldly goods are being auctioned off. Unbeknown to her she achieved international fame in life, people the world over believing she inspired author Charles Dickens to create Miss Havisham in his novel 'Great Expectations'. A young journalist, Colbert Moore, is sent to cover the estate sale by his paper and discover if the stories told about her were true. He tracks down Miss Donnithorne's former servants, the elderly Bailey sisters, and after some persuasion they tell him their late mistresses story which transports the reader back half a century and brings the key players lives to life; the scandalous events which saw James Donnithorne end up in India and made him the man he was. The story then unfolds ....

Excerpt
It is impossible to describe the atmosphere which hangs over Camperdown Lodge. Workmen spent a month scrubbing the Georgian mansion but couldn't exorcise the stench of decay which clings ghostlike to everything within the abode of echoes. The condemned ruins of a time-ravished conservatory, a shattered crystal palace, are an ominous sight whispering, ‘Lives were ruined here.’

Table of Contents
Chapter One: The Sun Returns. Chapter Two: Treacherous Times. Chapter Three: Here Comes the Bride. Chapter Four: Another World. Chapter Five: Same Time, a Generation Later.