A House-Party — Ouida

Popular novel, first published in 1902. According to Wikipedia: "Ouida (1 January 1839 â€" 25 January 1908) was the pseudonym of the English novelist Maria Louise Ramé (although she preferred to be known as Marie Louise de la Ramée)… Ouida's work had several successive phases during her career. Her first novel, Held in Bondage was published in 1863, when she was 24. In her early period, her novels were considered "racy" and "swashbuckling", a contrast to "the moralistic prose of early Victorian literature" (Tom Steele) comprising a hybrid of the sensationalism of the 1860s and the proto-adventure novels that were being published in part as a romanticization of imperial expansion. Later her work was more typically historical romance, though she never stopped comment on contemporary society. She also wrote several stories for children."