Pretty Madcap Dorothy

Or, How She Won a Lover

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About this book

At a New York bookbindery, sixteen-year-old Dorothy Glenn has a hopeful answer to her fellow workers' complaints about finding husbands: fate will bring the right person along. Her own interest has settled on a handsome Broadway car conductor, whose attentions also matter deeply to her coworker Nadine Holt. Dorothy confides in Jessie Staples, an older friend who worries about the young orphan's readiness to trust flattering words.

Laura Jean Libbey builds this romance around working women's hopes, rival claims to affection, and the uncertainty beneath an attractive appearance. A later ballroom scene places Dorothy, now blind, among guests whose praise of Iris Vincent makes her question what she has been told. The contrast between lively workplace conversation and private distress gives readers a view of popular romantic fiction's treatment of friendship, jealousy, and a young woman's wish to be loved.