Laurel Vane

by Mrs Alex

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142 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1907

Reviews

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delightful little bit of classic melodramatic fluff. The cover's pretty bad–not even a try at a portrayal of the petite blonde heroine–but the story easily held my interest.

Laurel Vane's father died quite suddenly (we are not told the cause), leaving her with one last article he'd written before his last illness; the money is needed to pay for his burial. She goes to his publisher, Mr. Gordon, to turn in the article and receive payment; but Gordon is away in the country. However, pretty young Beatrix Gordon overhears the desperate girl asking after him and goes to her, paying the money needed for the article and getting the grateful orphan Laurel's promise that she will do "anything in gratitude."

Laurel is turned out of her New York boarding-house and insulted by an unscrupulous man within the next few days, and feels as though Beatrix's summons a few days later is her only hope. Beatrix is engaged to a young businessman, and her parents are sending her to the countryside to live with an old friend of her mother's (whom she has never met) in an attempt to get her away from young Wentworth. So Beatrix sends Laurel as herself, along with her maid Clarice, while she herself runs away and marries the man she loves.

To young Laurel, now known as Beatrix, the quiet country home is a wonderful haven. But of course nothing in such a deception can be simple...

The ebook is available from Project Gutenburg.

[Johanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a pleasant little piece of escapism. I can't say that it was remarkable, but the meteoric rise and fall (and rise and fall again!) of the titular character was definitely entertaining. The book is about as substantive as a candy bar, and enjoyed much the same way. The characters are romantic stereotypes, but not without their delights. While reading, you can tell where the story is going, but the journey is a pleasurable one.

[Laura Bang · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not Mrs. Miller's finest work (sooo many pages of nothing happening), but it still had a few good Mrs. Millerisms. An excellent first sentence: "All the clocks of the great, thronged city clanged out the hour of midnight from their hoarse, brazen throats simultaneously, and as the last tremulous echo died away on the air, a human soul that had wasted its glorious talents, and squandered its heritage of genius in a reckless, dissipated life, was launched out on the great, shoreless tide of eternity." Too bad the rest didn't live up to that great beginning.