Zephyr Books – serie

In the reign of Cleopatra, an insignificant young man is in love. Meïamoun is captivated by his beloved, but she seems unattainable. There is a reason why the handsome young fellow is barred from his quest. The one he wants is his queen. He stands on the outskirts of great ceremonies just to catch a glimpse of her. He dreams of her charms and fascinations constantly. One night, having followed her royal cangia along the Nile to a palace at the waters’ edge, his obsession overtakes him – through an open window he fires an arrow with a note attached which bears the simple words “I love you.” Will Cleopatra acknowledge him? What further feats of daring must he undertake to get near her? If he does, what could possibly happen? In this high-stakes undertaking, one thing is for sure – he will risk his life... One of Cleopatra’s Nights was first published with other novellas in a volume entitled A Tear of the Devil in 1839.

This dramatic novella is split into two parts. In the first, a young woman of 'New Woman' convictions, identifiable with the author herself, makes a train journey to conservative connections in the country. On board the train she encounters the spirited niece of this family who has been looked after by them while her parents are away, but who well understands their limitations. Adalesa Shutt is determined, energetic, critically thoughtful and shares the narrator's opinions about the equality of women.

The daughter of the house, Evangeline Marsh, is Adalesa's cousin and the narrator's schoolmate. Both of them recognize a different type in Evangeline - someone dedicated to the pleasing of men and the pursuit of beauty for its own sake, as a necessary womanly art. She and her formidable mother, Lady Marsh, find the narrator and Adalesa to be hopelessly mistaken with regard to what is important in life. A ball that the three young women hold brings boiling to the surface their differences, and events there prove to have crucial consequences for their further lives.

The second part occurs many years later. The narrator and Adalesa again return to the Marshes' home at the same time, in a strange echo of the previous visit so long ago. How will the now elderly Lady Marsh and middle-aged Evangeline receive them? Will a ball the three women again plan to hold together revive old feelings? How will each of their approaches to life have determined their outcomes? In one case in particular, the answers to these questions are devastating.

With delightful wit and lyrical colour, leading into profound tragedy, Sarah Grand takes us on a journey into the significant pressures on women in her time. On serial publication in 1893, the crisis at the end of The Yellow Leaf was criticized by contemporary reviewers as improbable; Grand felt herself obliged to reveal that the climactic events in question, and the reasons for them, were taken from real life, illustrating perfectly that, sometimes, truth is more powerful than fiction.

Miss Ethel Browne is a typical adornment of her era. A single lady of a certain age in the period before the First World War usually assists a senior, or less healthy family member with the running of their house, or affords help of a more modest kind, in order to feel useful. Sometimes they are inspired to approach places of last resort to befriend and encourage poor unfortunates.

In Miss Browne's case the Rescue Home pairs her with Mabel Roberts, who has had a terrible start in life, and has fallen into dubious ways. Miss Browne is somewhat dazzled by Mabel's beauty, and charmed by her simple transparency and determination to be good. She finds Mabel a good position as general maid to two elderly ladies, and all seems set fair.

But, as the months go by, so do the reports of arguments, temper and secretiveness. Positions come and go, as Miss Browne struggles to help Mabel surmount her failings and find a foothold in the better life. Having 'slipped' somewhat, in a position as a waitress in a restaurant, Mabel disappears. In the end, Miss Browne finds her, only to discover that life has dealt Mabel a harsher blow.

Miss Browne's Friend was originally published in four parts between June 1914 and March 1915 in the Free Church Suffrage Times, a year after the publication of F. M. Mayor's celebrated first novel, The Third Miss Symons. With its mixture of wry humour and tragedy, it confirmed her reputation as one of the most sensitive exponents of the challenges and uncertainties of single women's lives in her times.