F. Marion Crawford, Adam Johnstone’s Son  ed. by Olimpia Gargano

26/11/2023

Entirely set in Amalfi, this novel was initially published in 13 episodes between April and June 1895 in the London weekly The Illustrated London News. This book contains 24 drawings by the Anglo-French artist Amédée Forestier, one of the most popular illustrators of his time, who was sent to the Amalfi Coast to give "local colour" to the story, as the advertisement ran.
Adam Johnstone's Son presents two English travelers, Clare Bowring and her mother, who are spending their holiday at the Albergo Cappuccini in Amalfi. The two ladies have been in Amalfi for two months, without ever setting foot outside the hotel. They spend their days reading, embroidering and admiring the panorama from the Cappuccini portico.
Every now and then they talk about taking an excursion to Ravello, but the plan keeps being postponed. Their monotonous vacation is upset by the arrival of a new guest, the attractive Brook Johnstone, who falls in love with Clare. However, despite being attracted by him, she refuses his courtship, since she had unwittingly witnessed an encounter in which the young man had abruptly broken off a relationship with a married woman. To Clare's delicate sensibility it had been an unacceptable scene. The situation is complicated by the discovery that Brook's father and Clare's mother had once been in a short-lived marriage from which no children had sprung.
A startlingly modern twist of divorce, remarriage and complicated relationships set against the stunning backdrop of the Amalfi Coast.