Confessions of a Young Lady: Her Doings and Misdoings

Molly Boyes wants to be an actress. Not someday, not when she's grown up, but right now, immediately, with the fierce conviction that only a child can muster. Inspired by the legendary William Henry West Betty, the teenage phenomenon who commanded fortunes from the stage, Molly sets out to make her mark on the local theater and finds only comedic disaster. Her well-intentioned plan to rescue a struggling troupe by bringing them German sausage spirals into chaos, revealing the gulf between her innocent ambitions and the indifferent adult world. Richard Marsh's 1905 comic novel follows Molly through a cascade of misadventures that are equal parts foolish and endearing. What emerges is a sharp, affectionate portrait of youthful pretension, the earnest absurdity of believing you can simply decide to be extraordinary, and the small humiliations that shape growing up. Molly is infuriating, lovable, and utterly, painfully certain of herself. For readers who delighted in the E. Nesbit's comedies of youthful scheming, this offers similar pleasures: a protagonist whose confidence vastly outpaces her competence, wrapped in Edwardian social satire.