The Prisoner

Anne and Lydia French arrive in Addington on a clear spring evening with their stepfather, whom they affectionately call the colonel. Their move to the old Blake house gives Alice Brown's novel an opening full of family loyalties, small-town curiosity and the details of an overgrown garden. The sisters respond differently to their new surroundings: Anne is quietly attentive, while Lydia brings a more outspoken energy to their first encounters.

Beyond this domestic beginning, the story follows Jeffrey, a man trying to live with the memories that return after his release from prison. At a public gathering, the forceful Madame Beattie draws cheers from a multilingual crowd that calls him The Prisoner. His unease contrasts with her appetite for public influence and her insistence that he use his youth. Readers interested in social expectations and the difficulty of beginning again will find those concerns expressed through close character observation and lively conversation.