She Walks in Beauty
Good Fit
- Readers interested in Victorian American society, debut balls and newspaper gossip
- Anyone who wants to read of a young woman with dreams of science and education struggling against social expectations
- Readers looking for a light, clean and romantic historical novel
Not a Fit
- Readers expecting deep psychological or social analysis: the novel rests mostly on a light romantic line
- Readers looking for fast plot: the first chapters are full of social rituals and inner monologues
- Readers wanting documentary historical accuracy: the novel is fiction
Beginning in 1891 New York against the wealth and waste of the Gilded Age, the novel is Clara Carter's first-person story. Clara is seventeen and loves mathematics, Latin and Italian. The opening scene: her aunt, Mrs Stuart, tells her in her bedroom «change, put on your walking dress, we're going out». The aunt has been in mourning since her husband's death, lives among plump lilac-coloured furniture with her Pomeranian dogs, and has run the house since Clara's mother died. Clara's father, Dr Willard Carter, is the city's best doctor and the inventor of «Dr Carter's Patent Tonic».
Clara's ally is her governess, Miss Miller, who teaches her geometry and languages and has even written to Vassar College for her. Clara and her only close friend Lizzie Barnes have agreed to make their debut (presentation to high society) together next year. At the tea visit that is overturned: the aunt moves Clara's debut up to this season. The reason is the 1 October society column of the «New York» paper: the rich De Vries heir Franklin and his brother Harold are returning from the Grand Tour. The aunt says Clara must «restore the honour of the Carter family» and win the heir.
The best scene of the opening chapters is Miss Miller's dismissal. The aunt throws out the governess for «never having trained Clara socially»; Miller says «the days when girls are forced to marry will end someday», and the aunt answers «but not in this house». Clara watches her walk away down Fifth Avenue from the window and cries for the first time since her mother's death six years ago. At dinner her father too is on his sister's side; Clara wants to object but cannot find the words. At night she finds two books under her pillow: her mother's Byron and Miss Miller's letter — «listen to your heart, but take your aunt's experience into account too».
Clara's second book is Jacob Riis's «How the Other Half Lives». In an hour of reading she learns that half of the city lives in attics, in damp beds, several to a room, and thinks «all of it happens in my city, in my home». The lines on the Statue of Liberty («give me your tired, your poor») strike her not as comfort but as accusation. This episode ties the novel to its social background: Clara sees for the first time the gulf between the marriage race and the poverty of the city. Yet the thought «one person cannot make a change» is also in her mind.
In church Clara sees the De Vries family: Mrs De Vries in a light-blue dress and an ostrich-feather hat, and two young men beside her. One wears a dove-grey suit; the other has an Inverness cape on his shoulders, tousled hair and thick brows — Clara sees he is looking at her too and hides. She does not know which is the heir; she thinks «why am I the sacrificial lamb?» The author's tone is light and ironic; the weakness is that in these chapters the conflict is set up very simply: the aunt forbids, Clara yields, and her only small rebellion lives in daydreams and books.
- In the first-person narration Clara's wit and irony are pleasing
- The era's social rituals (the debut, society column, corset, newspaper gossip) are vivid and detailed
- The heroine's love of mathematics, Latin and science differs from the standard romantic-heroine image
- The reference to Jacob Riis's «How the Other Half Lives» gives the novel a social background
A classic with a strong heroine who stands against social expectations
A novel that describes the high society of New York of the same era in more depth
The documentary book that Clara reads in the novel and that shows the city's poor life
The aunt undresses and measures Clara: waist 60, hips 65 centimetres. «I can't present you to society like a boy», she says, prescribes boiled egg in the morning, cheese at noon and creamed soup at night, and demands a waist of forty-six centimetres. The dressmaker brings a plain corset protecting the back; Clara has to sleep in it too, piling up cushions to sleep sitting. Then the aunt takes her to the shops: white for the debut, soft colours for other events, many gloves, garters and a parasol; she herself, for the first time, leaves the colour of mourning and orders purple and grey.
On Thursday Clara meets Lizzie among the shrubs and learns that she too is being presented this season and that her mother has chosen the same heir for her: Lizzie is from the South, her family has no roots here, and she cannot refuse the heir. Both are afraid and astonished. Lizzie extracts the promise «we will never let love come between us» and proposes meeting at the same place every Thursday at half past three to discuss progress. On 27 October the newspaper announces that a tea will be given for Clara on 10 November.
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