Saved from herself or, On the edge of doom

About the book

Seventeen-year-old Ismay Trelane returns from school because her mother's bills have gone unpaid, only to discover that her presence interferes with Mrs. Trelane's romantic plans. Kept out of sight and left to occupy herself, Ismay spends nearly all her money on an evening at a theater. There, an apparently courteous stranger offers protection from an unwelcome approach and the sympathetic attention she rarely receives. Stirling begins the romance with the dangerous difference between Ismay's proud outward composure and her inexperience. The girl's desire for affection makes an accidental meeting momentous, while the adult world's judgments of appearance and respectability threaten to determine her future. Domestic neglect thus supplies the starting pressure for a melodrama of attraction, misunderstanding, and competing claims upon her trust.

• Emotional neglect
• Inexperience and trust
• Appearance and reputation

Why read it

The opening makes Ismay's vulnerability understandable through concrete acts of exclusion at home before introducing the larger melodrama.

English Street & Smith Eagle Series no. 550 text with the 1898 and 1899 copyrights