The Eustace Diamonds

Lizzie Greystock, a fortune-hunter who ensnares the sickly, dissipated Sir Florian Eustace and is soon left a very wealthy widow and mother. While clever and beautiful, Lizzie has several character flaws; the greatest of these is an almost pathological delight in lying, even when it cannot benefit her. Before he dies, the disillusioned Sir Florian discovers all this, but does not think to change the generous terms of his will.

Anthony Trollope (1815—1882) enjoyed considerable acclaim both as a novelist and as a senior civil servant in the Post Office. He published more than forty novels that are regarded as among the greatest of nineteenth-century fiction.
John Sutherland is Lord Northcliffe Professor of Modern English Literature at University College London and wrote the introduction to Chekhov's The Shooting Party for Penguin Classics.
Stephen Gill is a professor of English literature at Oxford University, a fellow of Lincoln College, and editor of Selected Poems by William Wordsworth (see page 107).