Sylvia's Lovers is a Victorian romance novel described by the author as "the saddest story I ever wrote". The story begins in the 1790s in the fictional coastal town of Monkshaven against the background of the practice of impressments during the early phases of the Napoleonic Wars. Sylvia Robson lives happily with her parents on a farm, and is passionately loved by her rather dull Quaker cousin Ph...