Marigold A story

About the book

Marigold, Princess of Ellel, is bored with wealth and with the deference it purchases. Determined to approach the imposing High Priest Alphonso, she leaves luxury for a cottage, dresses in rags, and takes her practical maid Alice along to manage the experiment. Their exchanges expose differences between privileged confidence and the knowledge gained through work and dependence. Around them lies Lucifram, a deliberately fantastic world whose religious offices, rulers, and hidden influences turn familiar moral claims into strange dramatic forms. Allonby combines Marigold's unruly pursuit with reflections on obedience, desire, and the authority used to govern other people. The heroine's attempt to escape the meaning of her rank becomes a test of how much she understands about the world she is entering.

• Privilege and disguise
• Desire and authority
• Spiritual satire

Why read it

Alice's practical replies continually puncture Marigold's grand declarations, giving the symbolic world a lively human counterpoint.

English Greening & Co. edition of 1905, issued as by the author of Jewel Sowers