The Tontine (2 Volumes)

This story of a tontine (a strange and enticing form of gamble, part lottery, part insurance) begins with the day when the battle of Waterloo was fought and ends when the nineteenth century was drawing to a close.... It is above everything else, therefore, a story of great variety: for although it marches briskly ahead with the interweaving narrative of the lives of its main characters, it takes time also to linger in the backwash of change, in the dingy squares, the inns, the coaching yards and railway stations, in the greenrooms and courts and jails of a colorful century.