The Lilac Sunbonnet: A Love Story

About the book

Ralph Peden arrives in Galloway with the habits of a studious young man raised under strict religious expectations. His father, a minister, has given him principles about duty and conduct that seem secure while they remain largely untested. Among the people of Dullarg, however, Ralph encounters a lively social world that refuses to fit entirely inside his books. Winsome Charteris, whose practical abilities accompany her beauty, becomes especially difficult to regard with scholarly detachment. Crockett develops their courtship through village encounters, domestic work, and the pressures exerted by a closely observing community. The romance asks how inherited convictions change when affection gives them immediate consequences, while the local speech and rural setting keep its arguments grounded in particular people and familiar tasks.

• Faith and experience
• Courtship and reputation
• Rural community

Why read it

The relationship grows through ordinary work and conversation, giving its conflict with religious expectations a tangible setting.

English text of S. R. Crockett's novel