The Guinea Stamp

Gladys Graham faces the loss of her father in a shabby artist’s studio in the Lincolnshire fens. Already familiar with hunger, she wonders how her few skills in music, drawing and arithmetic can earn her a living. Annie S. Swan begins this Glasgow novel with the difficulties of an orphaned girl and the harsh judgments surrounding her father’s unsuccessful career. The opening makes poverty a matter of daily needs as well as wounded pride.

In later scenes, Gladys moves among well-dressed acquaintances whose conversation turns to visits, gowns and the social season. Her concern for the missing Lizzie Hepburn introduces a more anxious subject. Elsewhere, a Glasgow seamstress finishes a pile of work for a small payment, then eagerly accepts an invitation to the country. Scots dialogue, descriptions of clothing and the details of paid work bring these different circumstances into focus. Readers interested in fiction about class and compassion will find a story attentive to the distance between social standing and personal worth.