The Maiden in the Garden is the first novel in Frederica's Quartet, considered perhaps the major work of Dame Antonia Susan Byatt of the Order of the British Empire. The tetralogy was written over a quarter of a century, and its plot also spans a quarter of a century, with the first two novels appearing before the Booker Prize-winning international bestseller Possess, and the third and fourth after. In The Maiden in the Garden, modern comedy intersects and resonates unpredictably morals and Elizabethan drama, and life imitates art. The Yorkshire Potter family is preparing, along with the entire empire, to celebrate the coronation of the new monarch, Elizabeth II. But the younger generation has its own concerns: Stephanie, tired of her father’s authoritarianism, is preparing to marry a local priest; Mathematics prodigy Marcus is haunted by disturbing visions; and for Frederica, desperately yearning to plunge into the big world, a passion for a young playwright could serve as a ticket to freedom... “The Virgin in the Garden is a modern epic akin to a skillfully woven, rich carpet. Byatt's characters ask the main questions of their time. Their voices sound sincere, sometimes confused, sometimes achieving amazing beauty" (Entertainment Weekly). For the first time in Russian!