Coniston

In the mountain town of Coniston, where forests, rivers, mills, and a close-knit village green frame the old New England order, social change is already gathering force. Against this richly observed backdrop, Cynthia Ware, the minister's intelligent and idealistic daughter, finds her life unsettled by Jethro Bass, a taciturn tannery man of low birth whose shrewdness, discipline, and hidden wealth hint at powers far beyond his station. A borrowed book on Napoleon draws them into a dangerous intimacy, and Cynthia's curiosity soon collides with desire, shame, and the expectations of her community. As Jethro studies power with a self-made man's instinct, Coniston begins to suspect that he may rise from outsider to political force. His appearance at meeting, his secret return of the book, and the town's gossip deepen the tension around him, while Isaac Worthington's respectable courtship of Cynthia and his plans for a woollen mill offer a rival path of ambition and progress. With rumors of a Democratic challenge unsettling the town's leaders, the novel becomes a sweeping story of love, class conflict, political awakening, and the end of an older world. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.