Rating: 2.5 stars Category: Classics, Dystopian Synopsis: In an England of the future, Lionel Verney is a poor shepherd boy when he is befriended by Adrian, Earl of Windsor and Raymond, a favoured candidate for the Lord Protectorship - the pinnacle of political achievement. Lionel is soon moving in the same circles as the most powerful, wealthy and intellectual men in the world. Yet this Romantic paradise of virtue and conversation is under threat when a plague begins to decimate the world's population, and Lionel is helpless to protect all that he has come to treasure of life's riches.