Within the Law

Within the Law is a novelization by Marvin Dana (1867-1926) of the famous 1912 Broadway play of the same title by Bayard Veiller. The play had been one of the major Broadway successes of the early 1910s, running for several hundred performances and producing extensive road tour and film adaptations across the following years.

The story follows Mary Turner, a young woman who has been wrongly convicted of theft and sentenced to three years in prison. After her release she becomes the leader of a group of criminals who operate strictly within the legal letter of the law, exploiting loopholes and technicalities to defraud wealthy targets without committing actions that the authorities can prosecute. The play and novel explore the moral and legal questions raised by this approach.

Dana’s prose adaptation expands the play into novel length while preserving the basic plot. The book was published in connection with the various subsequent stage and film productions of the story across the 1910s and 1920s. The Within the Law story was filmed multiple times including considerable silent film and early sound film versions.