Deerbrook (Annotated)

Harriet Martineau's Deerbrook (1839) is a capacious novel of provincial life, centering on the rival affections, moral trials, and social misunderstandings surrounding the Ibbotson sisters, Hester and Margaret, and the village surgeon Edward Hope. Written in a lucid, analytical style, it combines domestic realism with ethical inquiry, anticipating later Victorian studies of community, reputation, ...