After the death of their father, sisters Ayala and Lucy Dormer are separated and sent to live with wealthy relatives. While Lucy accepts her modest circumstances, the imaginative Ayala clings to a romantic vision of a celestial "Angel of Light" who will eventually claim her. She rejects several earnest suitors, including the red-haired and awkward Jonathan Stubbs, because they fail to match her aesthetic ideal. The narrative traces the financial shifts of the Dormer and Dosett families while focusing on Ayala’s gradual realization that genuine character often exists outside of poetic fantasy.
Readers who enjoy Victorian social comedies and intricate marriage plots will appreciate the detailed contrast between romantic idealism and economic reality. The book attracts those interested in the psychological development of a stubborn protagonist learning to distinguish between surface appearances and moral worth. Readers finish the novel with a clear understanding of how social expectations and financial dependency dictated the choices of nineteenth-century women, alongside a lighthearted perspective on the absurdity of youthful perfectionism.
- Published
- 1881
- Language
- EN
