Somehow I missed this during the Cold War years. Read the two blockbuster Follett books in the past year. The time just before the outbreak of World War I is a rich tableau, especially for the English. Recently the BBC Masterpiece series Doutton Abbey covers the same territory with similar characters: the spirited daughter who goes to forbidden suffragette meetings, the stodgy aristocratic country setting where phones are just being installed, servants in trouble. Follett's novel has the distinctio of two Russian characters;
the Countess, and the villain, an anarchist named Feliks and their murky shared past. The novel builds to a suspenseful climax in Follett's craftsmanlike plotting. A good read.