The English Novels Part A

Bubble Reputation & Cardboard Castle

By: Percival Christopher Wren

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Volume Six of The Collected Novels of P. C. Wren, The English Novels, contains four novels with a different setting than that of his other novels. The action takes place almost entirely in England, which is why the title of this omnibus edition is the English novels. Part A contains two novels, Bubble Reputation (1936) and Cardboard Castle (1938) that is set in the English countryside in large country manor houses. Bubble Reputation is the story of Sir Giles (known as Bump) Cortenay, the last descendant of an old English family. Due to difficult economic circumstances, Bump has turned the house into a country hotel. The main plot is about the mystery of the murder of Bump’s granduncle and the search for a great hoard of jewels hidden on the estate by Bump’s buccaneer ancestor. The second novel, Cardboard Castle is the story of a tutor, Henry Waring, and the teenager, Anthony Calderton, he is teaching. Anthony’s mother and father leave England to govern a British colony, but Lady Calderton returns when she is taken ill with a “tropical” disease. This is when the so-called “old friend”, but actually Lady Calderton’s first husband, Captain Bertie-Norton, appears. He had faked his death and now wants Lady Calderton to provide his upkeep and living since he wants to “settle down” after his adventuring throughout the world. He wants to do this without anybody knowing who he really is. Lady Calderton and the tutor, Henry Waring, have to deal with Bertie-Norton and his demands, as Henry deals with the teenager who is “mad” about the English Civil War.