In Edwardian London, Louis Mazzini feels the need to write his memoirs due to his current circumstances. He grew up in a humble, working class household despite his mother being from the wealthy D’Ascoyne family, who disowned her when she, in their eyes, married beneath them in Louis’ father, who Louis doesn’t even remember in he having passed when he was an infant, being a poor opera singer. She was in direct line to become the Duchess of Chalfont. The D’Ascoynes refused even to recognize Louis’ existence as a result. The last straw in this matter for Louis was when they refused her last request to be buried on the Chalfont estate upon her passing. But it wasn’t until vain and opportunistic Sibella Hargrove, with who he was in love but was instead going marry his rival Lionel Holland who could afford to keep her in the lifestyle to which she aspired, that Louis decided to pursue what he considered his rightful place in the D’Ascoyne family and the title of Duke of Chalfont. Pending other issues such as children being born into the family by other heirs, Louis decided to achieve his goal by not only needing to eliminate the Duke but the then eight other D’Ascoynes who were in line as Duke or Duchess before him, the easiest way in his mind to commit the murders being either to ingratiate himself into their lives or learn in great detail about them to do the acts easily but without detection. What may have thrown a wrench into the proceedings is falling in love with Edith, a D’Ascoyne by marriage and who is/was in opposition to Sibella in his life.
—Huggo
参考翻译：
在爱德华时代的伦敦，路易·马齐尼（LouisMazzini）觉得有必要写回忆录，因为他目前的处境。他在一个简陋的工人阶级家庭中长大，尽管他的母亲来自富有的达斯科因家族，在他们眼里，当她嫁给路易斯的父亲时，她与她断绝了关系，路易斯甚至不记得他是一个贫穷的歌剧演唱家，在他还是婴儿时就去世了。她直接成为查尔方特公爵夫人。因此，达斯科尼家族甚至拒绝承认路易的存在。路易斯在这件事上的最后一根稻草是，他们拒绝了她去世后最后一次在查尔丰庄园安葬的请求。但直到虚荣和机会主义的西贝拉·哈格罗夫（Sibella Hargrove）与他相爱，但却打算与他的对手莱昂内尔·霍兰德（Lionel Holland）结婚，莱昂内尔·霍兰德（Lionel Holland）有能力维持她所向往的生活方式，路易斯才决定追求他认为自己在达斯科因家族中应有的地位和查尔方特公爵的头衔。为了解决其他问题，比如其他继承人在家里生孩子，路易斯决定要实现他的目标，不仅要除掉公爵，还要除掉在他之前排成公爵或公爵夫人的其他八位达斯科尼家族成员，在他看来，最容易犯下谋杀罪的方法要么是迎合他们的生活，要么是了解他们的详细情况，以便轻松地做出这些行为，但不被发现。可能是因为与伊迪丝坠入爱河，伊迪丝是一位已婚的女强人，一生中与西贝拉对立。-雨果
重点词汇释义：
Mazzini马志尼（Giuseppe，1805—1872，意大利爱国者及革命家）
due to由于; 应付
grew up成人发生
working class工人阶级
remember in在…中忆起; 把遗赠给
direct line直线；直通行；定向线；直达线
as a result因此
