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By Request: The Love Story of Noel and Peggy
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
- GenresRomance
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1928
10 people want to read
About the author
Ethel M. Dell
143 books13 followersEthel M. Dell (2 August 1881 – 19 September 1939) was a British writer of over 30 popular romance novels and several short stories from 1911 to 1939.
Ethel May Dell was born on 2 August 1881 in Streatham, a suburb of London, England. Her father was a clerk in the City of London and she had an older sister and brother. Her family was middle class and lived a comfortable life. Ethel Dell was a very shy, quiet girl and was content to be dominated by her family. She began to write stories while very young and many of them were published in popular magazines. Beneath her shy exterior, she had a passionate heart and most of her stories were stories of passion and love set in India and other old British colonial possessions. They were considered to be very racy and her cousins would pull out pencils to try and count up the number of times she used the words: passion, tremble, pant and thrill. Pictures of her are very rare and she was never interviewed by the press.
Ethel Dell worked on a novel for several years, but it was rejected by eight publishers. Finally the publisher T. Fisher Unwin bought the book for their First Novel Library, a series which introduced a writer's first book. This book, entitled The Way of an Eagle, was published in 1911 and by 1915 it had gone through thirty printings.
Her debut novel is very characteristic of Ethel M. Dell's novels. There is a very feminine woman, an alpha male, a setting in India, passion galore liberally mixed with some surprisingly shocking violence and religious sentiments sprinkled throughout.
While readers adored Ethel M. Dell's novels, critics hated them with a passion; but she did not care what the critics thought. She considered herself a good storyteller – nothing more and nothing less. Ethel M. Dell continued to write novels for a number of years. She made quite a lot of money, from £20,000 to £30,000 a year, but remained quiet and almost pathologically shy.
In 1922, Ethel Dell married a soldier, Lieutenant-Colonel Gerald Tahourdin Savage, when she was forty years old, and the marriage was happy. Colonel Savage resigned his commission on his marriage and Ethel Dell became the support of the family. Her husband devoted himself to her and fiercely guarded her privacy. For her part she went on writing, eventually producing about thirty novels and several volumes of short stories. Ethel's married name is recorded as Ethel Mary Savage.
Ethel M. Dell died of cancer on 19 September 1939, at 58.
(from Wikipedia)
Ethel May Dell was born on 2 August 1881 in Streatham, a suburb of London, England. Her father was a clerk in the City of London and she had an older sister and brother. Her family was middle class and lived a comfortable life. Ethel Dell was a very shy, quiet girl and was content to be dominated by her family. She began to write stories while very young and many of them were published in popular magazines. Beneath her shy exterior, she had a passionate heart and most of her stories were stories of passion and love set in India and other old British colonial possessions. They were considered to be very racy and her cousins would pull out pencils to try and count up the number of times she used the words: passion, tremble, pant and thrill. Pictures of her are very rare and she was never interviewed by the press.
Ethel Dell worked on a novel for several years, but it was rejected by eight publishers. Finally the publisher T. Fisher Unwin bought the book for their First Novel Library, a series which introduced a writer's first book. This book, entitled The Way of an Eagle, was published in 1911 and by 1915 it had gone through thirty printings.
Her debut novel is very characteristic of Ethel M. Dell's novels. There is a very feminine woman, an alpha male, a setting in India, passion galore liberally mixed with some surprisingly shocking violence and religious sentiments sprinkled throughout.
While readers adored Ethel M. Dell's novels, critics hated them with a passion; but she did not care what the critics thought. She considered herself a good storyteller – nothing more and nothing less. Ethel M. Dell continued to write novels for a number of years. She made quite a lot of money, from £20,000 to £30,000 a year, but remained quiet and almost pathologically shy.
In 1922, Ethel Dell married a soldier, Lieutenant-Colonel Gerald Tahourdin Savage, when she was forty years old, and the marriage was happy. Colonel Savage resigned his commission on his marriage and Ethel Dell became the support of the family. Her husband devoted himself to her and fiercely guarded her privacy. For her part she went on writing, eventually producing about thirty novels and several volumes of short stories. Ethel's married name is recorded as Ethel Mary Savage.
Ethel M. Dell died of cancer on 19 September 1939, at 58.
(from Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 26, 2016
3 1/2
A nice conclusion to the trilogy of The Way of an Eagle and The Keeper of the Door!
I'll admit it wasn't as good as the first two, but it's still worth reading since we get to see some old, well-loved characters from the previous books.
The plot is simple, Peggy goes to India to be with her workaholic father and hopefully bring him back to earth and sanity. There she meets an old friend, Noel Wyndham. She also comes into contact with a man who will stick with her through thick and thin, a Captain Tiggie Turner. Then there's Mr. Forges, her father's right hand man, and he will stop at nothing to have his own way.
Peggy is quite likable, impulsive like she used to be and at moments too heroic, but you can't dislike her. And as always, Dell somehow wrangles things so that the disaster we're all expecting is averted. Which had me glued to the page, headache or no.
There's a few things that I didn't like, the biggest would have to be 'the sacrifice' chapter. It really bugged me, as all well meant, but misplaced heroism does.
Of course, if all the important chapters hadn't had gobbledygook from being an online book, I may not have been so annoyed.
Another thing, I'd have like to see Noel and Peggy together a bit more. Then again, Tiggie really stole the show, he's the real hero here.
PG Mention of a jade buddha being used as a charm and Peggy's father having visions, whether they are a concoction of his own distorted brain or actual visions is never explained.
A nice conclusion to the trilogy of The Way of an Eagle and The Keeper of the Door!
I'll admit it wasn't as good as the first two, but it's still worth reading since we get to see some old, well-loved characters from the previous books.
The plot is simple, Peggy goes to India to be with her workaholic father and hopefully bring him back to earth and sanity. There she meets an old friend, Noel Wyndham. She also comes into contact with a man who will stick with her through thick and thin, a Captain Tiggie Turner. Then there's Mr. Forges, her father's right hand man, and he will stop at nothing to have his own way.
Peggy is quite likable, impulsive like she used to be and at moments too heroic, but you can't dislike her. And as always, Dell somehow wrangles things so that the disaster we're all expecting is averted. Which had me glued to the page, headache or no.
There's a few things that I didn't like, the biggest would have to be 'the sacrifice' chapter. It really bugged me, as all well meant, but misplaced heroism does.
Of course, if all the important chapters hadn't had gobbledygook from being an online book, I may not have been so annoyed.
Another thing, I'd have like to see Noel and Peggy together a bit more. Then again, Tiggie really stole the show, he's the real hero here.
PG Mention of a jade buddha being used as a charm and Peggy's father having visions, whether they are a concoction of his own distorted brain or actual visions is never explained.
August 26, 2015
By Request is book three in a trilogy, the first being "The Way of an Eagle" and the second, "The Keeper of the Door". "By Request" is the weakest by far, earning just three stars (books one and two were both five star reads for me).
So this is good but not spectacular, with some of the same plot lines and character types found in the first two books being masticated once again.
By Request follows the story of Peggy and Noel who we met in TKotD, when Peggy was six and Noel was twenty two. So if age differences bother you, read no further because Peggy is now grown up and Noel still holds a cherished place in her affections...
The setting is England and India. Peggy has spent the largest part of her girlhood in England but on leaving school, travels to India to be near her grieving father. She befriends a mysterious, exotic beauty named Marcella, who, ostracized by "the set", is nevertheless a close companion of Noel. And adding to the suspense, Peggy comes under the dangerous notice and attention of Marcella's evil husband, who is determined to have Peggy, willingly or not.
The plot holds excitement and plot twists which will hold most readers attention, but there were also disappointments, leaving me ultimately a little dissatisfied with how things wrapped up.
Bottom line : Read for closure after books one and two, but don't go into it with unrealistically high expectations, like I did.
Also, worth mentioning, there are a few rather far fetched visions, like waking dreams, that both Peggy and her father experience at different times. I didn't feel that these added much to the story but rather confused things. Were they portraying spiritual enlightenment? Psychic ability? Insanity? Vivid imagination? I'm not sure but it wasn't needed.
So this is good but not spectacular, with some of the same plot lines and character types found in the first two books being masticated once again.
By Request follows the story of Peggy and Noel who we met in TKotD, when Peggy was six and Noel was twenty two. So if age differences bother you, read no further because Peggy is now grown up and Noel still holds a cherished place in her affections...
The setting is England and India. Peggy has spent the largest part of her girlhood in England but on leaving school, travels to India to be near her grieving father. She befriends a mysterious, exotic beauty named Marcella, who, ostracized by "the set", is nevertheless a close companion of Noel. And adding to the suspense, Peggy comes under the dangerous notice and attention of Marcella's evil husband, who is determined to have Peggy, willingly or not.
The plot holds excitement and plot twists which will hold most readers attention, but there were also disappointments, leaving me ultimately a little dissatisfied with how things wrapped up.
Bottom line : Read for closure after books one and two, but don't go into it with unrealistically high expectations, like I did.
Also, worth mentioning, there are a few rather far fetched visions, like waking dreams, that both Peggy and her father experience at different times. I didn't feel that these added much to the story but rather confused things. Were they portraying spiritual enlightenment? Psychic ability? Insanity? Vivid imagination? I'm not sure but it wasn't needed.
December 26, 2022
It’s not Dell’s best but it’s not her worst either. There weren’t enough scenes between Peggy and Noel but you could still feel the romance. The story didn’t lag either but at the same time there wasn’t enough meat in it.
It’s an average book for Dell but much better than other books in this genre.
3 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️
P.S. Thank God Peggy didn’t cry as much as other Dell MC’s.
It’s an average book for Dell but much better than other books in this genre.
3 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️
P.S. Thank God Peggy didn’t cry as much as other Dell MC’s.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews