The Golden Gondola

The beautiful but innocent Paolina Mansfield almost loses her life when the ship that she is a passenger on is tragically wrecked in a storm off the coast of Italy. All aboard, including her father were lost, except just for herself and her handsome rescuer, Sir Harvey Drake, who is a descendant of the famous Sir Francis Drake himself. Already reduced to the point of penury by her father's addiction to endless gambling, Paolina now has nothing left in her life and no family or friends to come to her aid. But Sir Harvey, by his own admission a 'gentleman adventurer', devises a grand plan for her that would save them both, as he also has many financial problems of own in Endland. As Paolina is so beautiful and captivating, he intends to marry her off to a wealthy suitor in Italy and share the resulting riches with her. Presented to the highest echelons of Venice Society as his sister, Paolina's demure beauty instantly bewitches some of Venice's most illustrious and eligible gentlemen and she is overwhelmed by amorous approaches especially from the sinister and extremely rich Duke of Ferrara. Yet she is deeply unhappy. Because it seems that Paolina is condemned to marry someone she does not and cannot love and she has already lost her heart to her swashbuckling but penniless saviour.

Barbara Cartland was the world's most prolific novelist who wrote an amazing 723 books in her lifetime, of which no less than 644 were romantic novels with worldwide sales of over 1 billion copies and her books were translated into 36 different languages. As well as romantic novels, she wrote historical biographies, 6 autobiographies, theatrical plays and books of advice on life, love, vitamins and cookery. She wrote her first book at the age of 21 and it was called Jigsaw. It became an immediate bestseller and sold 100,000 copies in hardback in England and all over Europe in translation. Between the ages of 77 and 97 she increased her output and wrote an incredible 400 romances as the demand for her romances was so strong all over the world. She wrote her last book at the age of 97 and it was entitled perhaps prophetically The Way to Heaven. Her books have always been immensely popular in the United States where in 1976 her current books were at numbers 1 & 2 in the B. Dalton bestsellers list, a feat never achieved before or since by any author. Barbara Cartland became a legend in her own lifetime and will be best remembered for her wonderful romantic novels so loved by her millions of readers throughout the world, who have always collected her books to read again and again, especially when they feel miserable or depressed. Her books will always be treasured for their moral message, her pure and innocent heroines, her handsome and dashing heroes, her blissful happy endings and above all for her belief that the power of love is more important than anything else in everyone's life.