The Belle of Bowling Green

Amelia E. Barr sets this romance in New York during the War of 1812, when the city’s Dutch and English families still measured each other by pedigree and pride. Sapphira Bloommaert, the admired belle of the title, is caught between family expectations and her own growing feeling for Leonard Murray, all while war unsettles the streets around Bowling Green. Barr, a careful student of American history, fills the pages with period detail: old New York manners, mercantile fortunes, and the political tension of a young nation once again at odds with Britain. It reads as both a love story and a portrait of a vanished city. Offered here as a free PDF and EPUB edition.