Dorothy Eden Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Story Collections

Publication Order of Anthologies

Dorothy Eden was one of the prominent authors of the literature & fiction, mystery, and thriller genres, hailing from Canterbury Plains, New Zealand. She has written a number of successful standalone novels in her writing career. Dorothy was born on April 03, 1912 in Canterbury Plains and died due to cancer on March 04, 1982 in London. Before taking up the profession of writing as a full time writer, she took a trip around the world along with her friends. When she visited England on her tour, she fell madly in love with the country. Dorothy desperately wanted to visit there once again and spend the rest of her life. Therefore, she moved to London in the year 1954. As far as the writing career of author Dorothy is concerned, she was very well known for many of her romance and mystery books. Even the short stories written by her in the periodicals were very much appreciated by the readers all over the world. Being one of the renowned novelists of her time, Dorothy was praised for ability to create suspense and fear through her novels. Due to this, she was able to earn a number of devoted readers and fans throughout her writing career. Author Dorothy Eden was born as Dorothy Enid Eden in a farming community. Her family used to live near Ashburton in Canterbury Plains in New Zealand. As a child, she attended a local school and later went on to work as a legal secretary. When she felt the urge to move to England, she gave up her job and went there to start a new beginning of her life. Many of the successful novels written by her are based on the suspense, Gothic, and historical genres. Other than writing mystery novels, author Dorothy was also involved in contributing to magazines with some of her written works. Some of the literary magazines in which was actively involved are good Housekeeping and Redbook.

Author Dorothy Eden has written a total of 41 standalone novels in her writing career. All of them have been written under her real name. She has also written a couple of novels under the pseudonym Mary Paradise. One of the initial novels written by her was titled ‘Ravenscroft’. It was published in the year 1964 as a Paperback edition. The plot of this novel revolves around the lives of the central characters Bella McBride, Lally McBride, and Guy Raven, and is set in Victorian England. In the opening sequence of the plot of the novel, Bell McBride and her young timid sister Lally McBride are depicted as being caught in a shameful scandal innocently during their teenage years. This incident has shaken all of the Victorian England. They were very poor and were orphaned when they were very small. They were forced to seek their fortunes all by themselves in London. However, they get caught in the clutches of a notorious pair, who were later revealed to be infamous criminals. They used to mainly indulge in the exploitation of young women who came in contact with them.

When Bella and Lally McBride were about to get exploited by them, they were saved by a man named Guy Raven, who is described by the author as a dynamic politician. Guy Raven prevents them from experiencing a deadly fate and takes them in. Now, questions begin to get raised against him for keeping the young sisters in his home without any relation with them. Hence, in order to safeguard his own reputation, he proposes Bella McBride to get married to him. After a little while, Lally and Bella McBride become ladies of fashion living after Bella’a marriage to Guy Raven. The two sisters seem to be happy living in a spacious and a vast country home which they called Ravenscroft. Later, it is learned that Bella is expecting the birth of her first child, but things still do not seem to be right. They come to know that each and every room of their big manor house was haunted by the memory of the first wife of Guy Raven, including Guy himself. To make matters worse for them, the criminals who had tormented them and had been caught and exposed by Guy Raven, were trying to make plans for taking revenge from guy Raven and the McBride sisters.

One of the other novels written by author Dorothy was titled ‘Speak To Me Of Love’. It was published by the Hoddor & Stoughton publishing house in the year 1971. The plot of this novel revolved around the lives of the primary characters, William Overton and Beatrice Bonnington. In the opening sequence of the plot of the novel, Beatrice Bonnington is described by the author as being very much impressed by the huge Overton House, especially by the brilliant and handsome young master of the Overton family, William Overton. She was so much thrilled that it became difficult for her to decide which one was better between the two, William Overton or his huge house. But being the daughter of a tradesman, she was not accepted by William and his family members. Even though she had succeeded in the Bayswater Road by her Bonnington’s Emporium and defeated the rivals of Liberty and Selfridge, she was not paid any heed by William. It was believed that he might marry her, but did not seem to love her. In fact, he was interested in pursuing his own pleasures like making frequent trips to abroad and spending time with the reigning beautiful women. Because of her negligence towards her, Beatrice was forced to take refuge at the Bonnington’s. There, her presence was valued, unlike in Overton House, where the haughty aristocrats used to elude her and mock her at her back. Soon, she became Queen Bea and seemed to be a very powerful lady, who wished to build an empire at the Bonington’s which would reflect the monarch of Victoria. Bea began to consider her business as an opiate to overcome the pains of the failure of William as a respectful husband. The novel became very much successful just like the previous novels of author Dorothy Eden and it helped her to establish herself among the prominent authors of her time. She received huge appreciations from the critics as well as the readers for her attempt to pen down the wonderful and interesting novel. This motivated her to write many other successful novels in the later stages of her writing career.

One Response to “Dorothy Eden”

1. Margaret: 4 years ago

   I loved her books, I was only a teenager when I started reading them, back in the 70’s but they caught my imagination. I kept them all apart from the ones I haven’t read (in those days you had to rely on the book shop stocking them) between her and Phyllis Whitney I became a great fan of mysterious/romantic stories!

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