Barbara's Heritage

An invitation to Italy transforms the plans of Barbara and Bettina Burnett, seventeen-year-old twins living near Boston. Their father's medical work and a large household leave little money for travel, but their parents arrange for them to accompany Mrs. Douglas and her children. The sisters' excitement shares space with the difficulty of leaving a close family, giving this novel a domestic beginning before its Italian scenes.

Deristhe L. Hoyt combines the young Americans' experiences with lessons in Italian painting. Visits to Perugia bring close attention to Perugino's faces, figures, and frescoes, while an excursion to Assisi connects their art studies with the life of St. Francis. Paintings, churches, and conversations become part of the characters' education. Readers interested in how fiction can introduce art history will find explanations woven into the account of travel, alongside the sisters' curiosity and affection for home.