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Aeneas Press edition Victorian

The New Mistress

A Tale

by George Manville Fenn 1831–1909

The book, and the century it came out of.

A young woman arrives to run a village school on a pittance, and discovers that the vicar, the squire and the parents each have a different idea of what she is for. Fenn wrote some 175 books, mostly boys’ adventures in mines and jungles; this is the quiet one — the country parish seen from the least powerful desk in it.

“Remember, Hazel,” said Mrs Thorne, “remember this—we may be reduced in circumstances; we may have been compelled by misfortune to come down into this wretched little town, and to live in this miserable, squeezy[1], poorly-furnished house or cottage, with the light kept out by the yellow glass, and scarcely a chimney…
The first sentence of The New Mistress
A note on this edition

The New Mistress, by George Manville Fenn, complete and unabridged. Spelling and punctuation follow present-day American usage; the sentences, the paragraphs and the voice are the author’s, word for word.

It was written in another era and may carry attitudes a reader today will find dated. They are kept for the sake of the work and do not reflect the views of this house.

The edition
Format
Ebook
Extent
about 264 pages
Reading time
about 5 hours
Illustrations
Full-page plates, credited
Text
Complete, unabridged
Language
en
This edition
2026
ISBN
9785501004870
The plates

60 paintings are bound into this edition

Six of them are shown here, taken from the volume itself. Each is reproduced full page and named with its painter and year.

Valley Farm, John Constable
Valley Farm John Constable 1835
A Lady and a Gentleman admiring Drawings of Flowers in an Interior, Alexander Mosses
A Lady and a Gentleman admiring Drawings of Flowers in an Interior Alexander Mosses 1834
The Cannon at Derwentwater, Thomas Fearnley
The Cannon at Derwentwater Thomas Fearnley 1837
Landscape with Timber Waggon, Richard Parkes Bonington
Landscape with Timber Waggon Richard Parkes Bonington 1825
Landscape with a Plowed Field and a Village, Georges Michel
Landscape with a Plowed Field and a Village Georges Michel 1835
Cenotaph to the Memory of Sir Joshua Reynolds, John Constable
Cenotaph to the Memory of Sir Joshua Reynolds John Constable 1836
The setting

A page from this edition

Not a mock-up: this page is taken from the finished volume. The ornament above the chapter belongs to its shelf and to no other, the opening letter is set as a drop capital, and the plate below carries the name of the painter and the year.

A page of The New Mistress as set for this edition
The opening of a chapter
A page of The New Mistress as set for this edition
A page where a plate falls

Both photographed from the finished volume.

Colophon

The New Mistress, issued in this edition by Aeneas Press in 2026 on the Literary Classics shelf. Newly set, with the ornament of its series above each chapter and a drop capital on the opening page. Illustrated with full-page plates, each named with its painter.

Published as an ebook and not issued in print by this house; it carries one ISBN, 9785501004870, and is supplied worldwide. This edition — its setting, its ornament, its cover art, and the selection and attribution of its plates — © 2026 Aeneas Press.

Before you buy

Questions readers ask

Is this the whole of The New Mistress?
Yes — complete and unabridged. Nothing is cut, condensed or paraphrased. This is the book, not a summary of it.
What exactly did you change?
The spelling and the punctuation follow present-day American usage. George Manville Fenn's sentences are untouched — same words, same order, same rhythm.
Are the pictures really in the book?
Yes. The edition carries full-page plates bound into the text, each one named with its painter and the year it was made. Six of them are shown on this page.
How long is it?
About 264 pages, which is roughly about 5 hours of reading.
What do I actually get?
An illustrated ebook with its own ISBN, sold worldwide. One file, yours to keep, readable on any device.
If this one suits you
The New Mistress
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