The Magnificent Marriage

Young Lady Lettice Burne is outstandingly beautiful with fair hair like sunshine and a flawless pink-and-white complexion.Yet her father, the Earl of Alderburne, desperate to find a wealthy suitor for her to pay off his mountain of accumulated debts, is resigned to the fact that she is immature and empty-headed and therefore unlikely to make the brilliant marriage that he had envisaged for her.So, when the handsome, dashing and rich Maximus Kirby expresses interest in her hand, the Earl is eager to send her to join him in Singapore.Maximus Kirby has been hugely successful in the Far East in trading and has started many profitable businesses that have brought unexpected prosperity to many poor communities.Lettice cannot possibly go to him in Singapore alone. So her sister Lady Dorinda goes, posing as her companion - albeit reluctantly, knowing that she is assuming her usual guise of 'ugly sister' thanks to the disfiguring eczema on her face and body that she has suffered from since childhood.To Dorinda's delight and astonishment the tropical climate miraculously cures her skin complaint and now everybody can see that she is every bit as beautiful as Lettice, including Maximus Kirby.Once in Singapore Dorinda and Lettice face great dangers which Maximus Kirby and Dorinda have to defeat and Lettice becomes more and more determined that she will not marry Maximus Kirby.And will Lady Dorinda finally find the love and the 'Magnificent Marriage' that her disease has always denied her?

Barbara Cartland was the world's most prolific novelist who wrote an amazing 723 books in her lifetime, of which no less than 644 were romantic novels with worldwide sales of over 1 billion copies and her books were translated into 36 different languages. As well as romantic novels, she wrote historical biographies, 6 autobiographies, theatrical plays and books of advice on life, love, vitamins and cookery. She wrote her first book at the age of 21 and it was called Jigsaw. It became an immediate bestseller and sold 100,000 copies in hardback in England and all over Europe in translation. Between the ages of 77 and 97 she increased her output and wrote an incredible 400 romances as the demand for her romances was so strong all over the world. She wrote her last book at the age of 97 and it was entitled perhaps prophetically The Way to Heaven. Her books have always been immensely popular in the United States where in 1976 her current books were at numbers 1 & 2 in the B. Dalton bestsellers list, a feat never achieved before or since by any author. Barbara Cartland became a legend in her own lifetime and will be best remembered for her wonderful romantic novels so loved by her millions of readers throughout the world, who have always collected her books to read again and again, especially when they feel miserable or depressed. Her books will always be treasured for their moral message, her pure and innocent heroines, her handsome and dashing heroes, her blissful happy endings and above all for her belief that the power of love is more important than anything else in everyone's life.