She Walks in Beauty — Dawn Powell

Dawn Powell's She Walks in Beauty recounts the adolescence of Dorrie and Linda, two sisters who live in a railroad station boarding house owned by their Aunt Jule in a small Ohio town. The story's cast of characters includes gently venal theater actors, the town gossip, a penurious piano teacher, eccentric alcoholics, not quite respectable women, philosophical old man Wickley, and town golden boy Courtenay Stall, among others. A tale of class society, ambition, longing, and coming of age, She Walks in Beauty is a taut, merciless, and psychologically astute portrait of pre-World War I life in small town America. This Warbler Classics edition includes a detailed biographical timeline.