Beth Woodburn

Publishing stories in the Briarsfield newspaper has given eighteen-year-old Beth Woodburn a taste for literary success. She dreams of becoming a famous Canadian novelist, taking George Eliot as her model. At home in an Ontario village near Lake Erie, her imagination runs ahead of daily life with her doctor father and Aunt Prudence, their housekeeper. Clarence Mayfair shares her interest in writing, and their conversations about books mingle with Beth's hopes of romance as she prepares for college.

Maud Petitt's novel brings these ambitions into contact with affection, artistic judgment and religious belief. As Beth finds fresh happiness in caring for others, she grows close to May Perth. A picture inspired by her own poem also makes her reconsider Arthur's artistic gifts. The home, its surrounding countryside and quiet conversations with her father give the story a personal scale. It offers readers interested in Canadian fiction a young woman's changing view of success, love and the value of serving other people.