telling (adj.) - more or less the same meaning

a spare pen - a pen you are not using

protagonists - key characters

the turn of the century - the end of one century and the beginning of another

to track the development of - to follow and observe the development

a common storyline

a cholera outbreak

permanently crippled - to not be able to walk

to strike up a friendship - to become friends

the basic outline

omniscient narrator - someone who tells a story acting as if they were always present and know everything

to be pitched at - to be addressed to (the type of intended audience)

youth-oriented

ideally suited for (teenagers)

Garden of Eden

to be steeped in secrecy - to be riddled with, to be full of

universal concepts - themes

dark crammed rooms of the manor house

The glass cliff is a closely related term, but refers to a phenomenon wherein women tend to be promoted to positions of power during times of crises, when failure is more likely. This could occur in fields as diverse as finance, politics, technology, and academia. 

While the more common glass ceiling presents a barrier to reaching the highest executive levels within their respective organizations, the glass cliff addresses the tendency to place women who have broken through it into precarious positions, making it likely their performance will falter, as if they are at risk of falling off a cliff.

Had Hillary Clinton won the presidential election in 2008, which was the height of the Great Recession, she might have been seen as the victim of the glass cliff. The term was coined by professors Michelle K. Ryan and Alexander Haslam of the University of Exeter, United Kingdom, in 2004. Ryan and Haslam documented this phenomenon extensively in a study of Great Britain’s FTSE 100 companies.9

The glass cliff is a closely related term, but refers to a phenomenon wherein women tend to be promoted to positions of power during times of crises, when failure is more likely. This could occur in fields as diverse as finance, politics, technology, and academia. 

While the more common glass ceiling presents a barrier to reaching the highest executive levels within their respective organizations, the glass cliff addresses the tendency to place women who have broken through it into precarious positions, making it likely their performance will falter, as if they are at risk of falling off a cliff.

Had Hillary Clinton won the presidential election in 2008, which was the height of the Great Recession, she might have been seen as the victim of the glass cliff. The term was coined by professors Michelle K. Ryan and Alexander Haslam of the University of Exeter, United Kingdom, in 2004. Ryan and Haslam documented this phenomenon extensively in a study of Great Britain’s FTSE 100 companies.9

to rebel against sth vs. to protest against