With his new edition of The Sylph, Jonathan Gross recovered the work of novelist and biopic subject Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. With Belmour, Gross introduces the only novel of the
English sculptress Anne Damer, another powerful eighteenth-century woman, to a modern audience.
Belmour chronicles the tangled romances of a group of eighteenth-century English aristocrats. The plot centers on charismatic Lord Belmour, a man of intense feeling and quick perception, who
goes to great lengths to gain the affection of the lovely and mysterious Emily Melville, only to learn that she has recently married another man. His heartache propels him on an extensive
journey across Europe, until fate ultimately leads their paths to cross once more. Set against vivid backdrops in Paris, Lisbon, Venice, and Rome, Belmour is a rich, multifaceted story of
forbidden love and erotic intrigue that will appeal to those interested in the gothic romances of Ann Radcliffe and the psychological novels of Elizabeth Inchbald. Like her contemporary Jane
Austen, Anne Damer casts a sharp and critical eye on the foibles of the aristocracy, yielding a memorable portrait of romantic love in the age of sensibility.
"How fortunate we are to have this new edition of Anne Damer's novel Belmour--a book as fascinating as the many-talented woman who wrote it. And how fortunate as well to have the book framed
for us by Jonathan Gross's critical and biographical commentaries, where the cultural significance of Damer and her work is set forth so well. Damer is an artist, a writer, and a personality of
real importance, now more lapsed from attention than she ever should have been."---Jerome McGann, University of Virginia
