William Wordsworth - A Conflict of Love: A Novel

On the voyage to France Wordsworth meets the elegant Elizabeth Montrose, who is travelling to Orleans to visit her nephew Pierre. Wordsworth’s plans are to visit Paris and Orleans so when Elizabeth Montrose invites him to call on her, he gratefully accepts. There he meets Pierre, stays at his splendid chateau and visits his vineyard. Pierre is a generous man and gives freely to his workers and the locals. But his generosity doesn’t allay fears that as the revolution spreads, his chateau and vineyard will become targets for pillage and destruction. At the chateau Wordsworth meets the beautiful Annette Vallon. They become inseparable but their lives are clouded with fear. Revolutionary France is a dangerous place for foreigners and Wordsworth must leave for his safety. Wordsworth is distraught as Annette is expecting his child and he vows to return when calmer times prevail. Back in England he befriends Samuel Taylor Coleridge and they collaborate on works of poetry, particularly the Lyrical Ballads. William and Dorothy return to the Lake District and find Dove Cottage where they meet again a childhood friend Mary Hutchinson. William and Mary fall in love but Wordsworth has learned Annette gave birth to a daughter, his daughter. He is drawn again to France to see Annette and their daughter and after joyous times there he returns to England to write, and with Annette’s blessing, to marry Mary Hutchinson. This is a splendid novel which captures the horrors of revolution and the brilliance of Britain’s best-loved poet.