Florence and Giles

Florence and Giles
John Harding

A sinister Gothic tale in the tradition of The Woman in Black and The Fall of the House of Usher1891. In a remote and crumbling New England mansion, 12-year-old orphan Florence is neglected by her guardian uncle and banned from reading. Left to her own devices she devours books in secret and talks to herself - and narrates this, her story - in a unique language of her own invention. By night, she sleepwalks the corridors like one of the old house's many ghosts and is troubled by a recurrent dream in which a mysterious woman appears to threaten her younger brother Giles. Sometimes Florence doesn't sleepwalk at all, but simply pretends to so she can roam at will and search the house for clues to her own baffling past.After the sudden violent death of the children's first governess, a second teacher, Miss Taylor, arrives, and immediately strange phenomena begin to occur. Florence becomes convinced that the new governess is a vengeful and malevolent spirit who means to do Giles harm. Against this powerful supernatural enemy, and without any adult to whom she can turn for help, Florence must use all her intelligence and ingenuity to both protect her little brother and preserve her private world.Inspired by and in the tradition of Henry James' s The Turn of the Screw, Florence & Giles is a gripping gothic page-turner told in a startlingly different and wonderfully captivating narrative voice.

Florence & Giles

John Harding

Copyright (#ulink_4bfc788c-d6b0-5c50-9e17-3151b38db578)

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

Blue Door

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk/)

First published by Blue Door in 2010

Copyright © John Harding 2010

John Harding asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks

HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content or written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication

Source ISBN: 9780007315031

Ebook Edition © MARCH 2010 ISBN: 9780007315062

Version: 2016-09-15

Dedication (#ulink_b0af1d10-2423-5772-8699-9286337bcb3d)

For Norah

Contents

Title Page (#u5b68bfd9-5637-5b0c-bd9c-2e99c1c33e63)

Copyright (#u3fee9a7e-e9d1-59ea-b9d5-be45ef43c3f0)

Dedication (#u1682959f-aa68-555b-89cb-b9146ab9da21)

The Swan (#ue68c4837-e71e-51ab-b21b-3143af639447)

Part One (#ue560c32d-a556-5862-9671-2ffefd847766)

1 (#uc8c76f24-2bf0-5c6a-bc29-0bf8351f7a06)

2 (#u3c15bdd0-e659-52a8-820d-37b20fa8172f)

3 (#u87b304e9-6cd1-5979-99ed-05b850145450)

4 (#ud3fb33d0-4d36-5bba-b313-e5ef1fcb59c7)

5 (#u08fa1776-1dc1-544c-8e89-67d570dd14d8)

6 (#ue8b5bad4-2eb8-5311-a8d1-09b1526b4d68)

7 (#ueb19adbd-3e98-5a88-a6c7-41549deff7ff)

8 (#u40124fc5-b420-5ed9-88c5-71633b204b28)

9 (#litres_trial_promo)

Part Two (#litres_trial_promo)

10 (#litres_trial_promo)

11 (#litres_trial_promo)

12 (#litres_trial_promo)

13 (#litres_trial_promo)

14 (#litres_trial_promo)

15 (#litres_trial_promo)

16 (#litres_trial_promo)

17 (#litres_trial_promo)

18 (#litres_trial_promo)

19 (#litres_trial_promo)

20 (#litres_trial_promo)

21 (#litres_trial_promo)

22 (#litres_trial_promo)

23 (#litres_trial_promo)