Charles Reade 
The Cloister and the Hearth (Barnes & Noble Digital Library) [EPUB ebook] 

This 1861 historical romance was Reade’s most popular novel with readers and critics alike.  Set in the 15th century, and notable for the author’s painstaking fidelity to period detail, the novel concerns the adventures of a young illuminator of manuscripts, Gerard Eliason, as he travels through Europe and embraces then renounces a religious vocation. 

Circa l’autore

Charles Reade (1814-1884) was a prolific English novelist and playwright who sought to expose social injustice in his work.  He is remembered for the novels The Cloister and the Hearth (1861), a historical romance; Hard Cash (1863), an expose of abuse in mental asylums; and Put Yourself in His Place (1870), about trade-union terrorism.