Knight-Errant:

by Edna Lyall

This is a classic tale of a young man who hopes to save his sister from the opera life and ends up living the life himself in his attempt to be near her when she refuses to leave. Carlo is of good family and has nothing but contempt for the life around him; can he find a way to be a good Christian while on the boards? Can he find true love?

402 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1887

About the author

Edna Lyall was the pseudonym used by Ada Ellen Bayley. Bayly was born in Brighton, the youngest of four children of a barrister. At an early age, she lost both her parents and she spent her youth with an uncle in Surrey and in a Brighton private school. Bayly never married and she seems to have spent her adult life living in with her two married sisters and her brother, a clergyman in Bosbury in Herefordshire. In 1879, she published her first novel, Won by Waiting, under the pen name of "Edna Lyall" (apparently derived from transposing letters from Ada Ellen Bayly). The book was not a success. Success came with We Two, based on the life of Charles Bradlaugh, a social reformer and advocate of free thought. Her historical novel In the Golden Days was the last book read to John Ruskin on his deathbed. Bayly wrote eighteen novels.

Reviews

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this years ago. If you like Charles Garvice or Bertha Clay, you'll love this one.