A Fluttered Dovecote
1890
A sharp, sardonic portrait of a young woman drowning in the expectations of Victorian society. Laura Bozerne finds herself trapped in the crossfire of her parents' decisions, dispatched to The Cedars, a finishing school she views as nothing less than a prison. Through Laura's witty, wounded narrative, Fenn captures the suffocating absurdity of being young and powerless: the ridiculous posturing of her mother and father debating school advertisements, the arbitrary cruelty of teachers, the desperate hunger for autonomy in a world that views women as ornamental. What makes A Fluttered Dovecote endure is its rawness, this isn't a tame Victorian heroine accepting her fate with grace. Laura rages, scoffs, and mourns, and her voice feels startlingly modern despite the period trappings. For anyone who has ever felt imprisoned by the expectations of family, institution, or convention.
