Ormond
First sentence
"What! no music, no dancing at Castle Hermitage to night; and all the ladies sitting in a formal circle, petrifying into perfect statues," cried Sir Ulick O'Shane, as he entered the drawing-room, between ten and eleven o'clock at night, accompanied by what he called his rear-guard, veterans of the old school of good fellows, who at those times in Ireland, times long since past, deemed it essential to health, happiness, and manly character, to swallow, and shew themselves able to stand after swallowing, a certain number of bottles of claret per day or night...
Description
"Handsome Harry Ormond has been brought up, with a mixture of indulgence and neglect, by corrupt Anglo-Irish politician Sir Ulick O'Shane... When his hot temper involves him in a near-fatal shooting, Harry is sent into the care of Sir Ulick's eccentric cousin, King Corny. Forced to reflect on his situation as a young man with neither property nor fortune, Harry resolves in future to be what he admires and 'shine forth an Irish Tom Jones'. His ensuing adventures take him from rural Ireland to fashionable Parisian society, where his good intentions in the areas of books, love and money are thoroughly tested." --Book jacket of 2000 ed.