Customer Reviews

The Beloved Woman (Classic Books on Cassettes Collection)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Norma Sheridan grew up in a household where, while they never went without, they never really had a lot of extra money either. Raised by a woman she calls Aunt Kate, the actual relationship between them is vague. Kate's children, Wolf and Rose, are Norma's closest friends.

At age nineteen Norma is taken under Marianna Melrose's wing, now to be called Aunt Marianna. Her new family includes Marianna's daughters, Alice and Annie along with their families and a granddaughter, Leslie who is close in age to Norma.

Norma finds herself living in a world with servants, piles of new clothes, and a high society lifestyle she's only dreamed of. She has mixed feelings about her new life. Sometimes she's thrilled with the opportunity, other times she can objectively see some of the people around her as being snobbish. She feels inadequate and undeserving of her new status until her Aunt Alice's husband Chris accidentally lets it slip that Aunt Marianna is actually Norma's grandmother.

Norma spends a lot of time at Aunt Alice's home, and with Alice's husband, Chris. Alice had been injured years earlier and can't walk, so she rarely leaves the house. Chris, however has an extremely busy social life. An attraction grows between Chris and Norma, and she has to deal with the guilt she feels towards Alice.

Norma has the unusual opportunity to choose between two very different worlds of wealth and status or the one in which she grew up in. She also has to choose between two men who love her above everything. Throughout the story the mystery of her birth parents pulls her along to her destiny.

This is a beautifully written story filled with wonderfully drawn characters. It was originally published in 1921 and nicely portrays how the very wealthy and middle class people lived at that time. The Beloved Woman is part of Project Gutenberg and can be read at gutenberg.org, google books, or at openlibrary.org for free.