Indiana (Oxford University Press)

Indiana (1831) is an absorbing and vivid romantic novel, set partly in provincial France, partly in Paris, and partly on a tropical island. It tells the story of a beautiful and innocent young woman, married at sixteen to a much older man. She falls passionately in love with a handsome, frivolous neighbour but discovers too late that his idea of love is quite different from her own. It is only after a series of painful experiences that she comes to appreciate the silent devotion of her loyal and protective cousin.