Caroline Harvey (Joanna Trollope) - Parson Harding's Daughter.

Review on show by Maggie Perkovic, Sept 24th '09.
This is an interesting early book by JT. Written in 1979 it tells of the sad family of Parson Harding who lost his wife at an early stage and is left to rear the children, five in all, by himself.
In 1775 opportunities for women were few and far between so with the older sister more or less in charge of the household the older boy ready to follow in the navy, Caroline was without a calling as it were.
Although their parents had been very good looking, the family of Hardings were amazingly plain and our heroine Caroline, has a long thin face and angular body and is so shy and reserved her personality appears crushed inside her.
They are all under the patronage of Lady Lennox, the lady of the manor, who is guardian to a disreputable member of her family, called Johnnie Gates and decides that Caroline should be the one to travel to India and marry the said Johnnie, in the hopes it would stop him drinking and wasting his money, such as it is. Caroline who knew Johnnie when they were both much younger and decides that her future at present is so limited, India may be a welcome change and she accepts the offer.
On arriving in India she finds that her future husband is already in the throes of living a life where work is minimal and enjoyment paramount, and only agrees to marry her to secure his inheritance from Lady Lennox.
Her life in India where she receives no money from her husband, and is treated worse than a servant is horrific but by an enormous effort and strength of character she makes a reasonable life for herself until a tragedy occurs and she finally finds a chance of happiness.
It is well written with an interesting look at life in colonial India, not quite a bodice ripper but her later books were less dramatic.
It won the Romantic Novelists Association award for 'best historical novel of the year'.