 Leonora, by Maria Edgeworth.
This is a novel in letters, published in 1806. Leonora, a respectable married noblewoman, has befriended Olivia, who has an air of scandal about her and a thousand excuses for it. To hear Olivia tell it, she is trapped in a loveless marriage, living apart from her husband, and quite helpless about falling in love with another man. Leonora invites Olivia to stay with her, on condition that Olivia not communicate with the other man. Olivia's own letters soon make her true character clear. She has a woman friend smuggle in letters from the boyfriend. Then she decides to flirt with Leonora's husband - just as an experiment, she says, to see if Leonora is capable of jealousy. Soon, however, she is professing her undying love for Leonora's husband. (Like many of the characters, he is referred to only by an initial, which is confusing at first.) The letters show the very different thought processes among the characters (who should really be talking to each other, instead of their various correspondents). Leonora refuses to show any jealousy, because she believes it would be insulting to her husband to imply that he wasn't trustworthy. Her husband interprets Leonora's lack of jealousy as proof that she isn't passionately in love with him. Most of the story reads like a soapy comedy, but there's an unexpected tragedy toward the end, when Leonora gives birth to an infant who dies soon afterward. A common tragedy in that era, but it doesn't really fit the tone of the story. Curiously, one of the reasons Leonora's mother warns her about Olivia's poor character is "novel reading"! Trigger warning for infant death. Popsugar Reading Challenge: A novel in letters. 52 Book Club Challenge: A domestic novel.
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