Dainty's Cruel Rivals; Or, The Fatal BirthdayMrs. Alex. McVeigh MillerOmniClassics · Literature
Dainty's Cruel Rivals; Or, The Fatal Birthday
Mrs. Alex. McVeigh MillerA poor young woman's country visit arouses the jealousy of relatives who regard marriage as their best route to wealth.
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About the book
Dainty Chase and her widowed mother live modestly in Richmond, where the unpaid board owed by cousins Olive and Ela makes an already tight budget harder to manage. An invitation to Aunt Judith's West Virginia home promises Dainty a welcome holiday after graduation. Her cousins, however, see the visit as a chance to win the wealthy Lovelace Ellsworth, and fear that Dainty's beauty will defeat their plans. Their hostility turns the familiar country-house courtship into a succession of intrigues and dangers. Miller presents innocence and calculation in sharply opposed terms, drawing suspense from the heroine's vulnerability within her own extended family. The romance's mounting melodrama exposes how easily promises of hospitality can conceal competition for financial security and social power.
- Jealousy and rivalry
- Poverty and marriage
- Family betrayal
Why read it
The opening's unpaid household bills give a concrete economic motive to the cousins' increasingly destructive jealousy.
English Arthur Westbrook Hart Series text with the 1898 George Munro's Sons copyright