ffred's
nearly-forgotten treasures"I would rather let Julian die than have him return to me with his conscience and honour broken and ruined. I would rather never see him again than when he returned I should have lies on my soul that I could never wipe out."
This short but interesting novel by Mabel Collins was mentioned by Lois Waisbrooker in her book My Century Plant (the other novel mentioned, The Blossom and the Fruit, is already available on Kindle). Here is her commentary:
Morial the Mahatma is the most perfect character picture of the Jewish Jehovah I have ever seen. "The ashes of the heart"—the death of all human loves, the most unquestioning obedience demanded; lies, hypocrisy, anything in the service of "The Master."
Daphne will not violate her own sense of right in blind obedience. She defies and thus conquers, thus destroys the fearful monster. This is what woman must do in asserting her right to herself. She must defy the power that enslaves her, must refuse to be prostituted legally or illegally, and nature knows no prostitution but unwilling subjection.
The text is from this scan of the 1892 edition. I corrected any obvious typographical errors, and although I preserved most spellings, I notably changed "Colny Hatch" to "Colney Hatch."
So here it is: the master HTML version, the home-brew Kindle version, and the actual Amazon publication.
September 17, 2025
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As with Mollie Evelyn Moore Davis, here is another author worthy of further discovery. I don't know how many of her novels I'll actually transcribe and publish, but I have noted these available online: