Danger; Or, Wounded in the House of a Friend
1875
This 1875 temperance novel by the author of the famous 'Ten Nights in a Bar-Room' delivers its moral message through the story of a man wounded by the very person he trusts most. Set in Victorian America, the novel follows a protagonist who falls into danger through the snare of intemperance, discovering that the most devastating blows often come from those closest to us. Arthur, one of the most popular authors of his era, wrote these didactic tales not as mere propaganda but as urgent pleas for moral reform, using narrative drama to awaken readers to the destruction alcohol wreaked upon families and communities. The book's subtitle signals its central wound: betrayal by a friend, the classic temperance warning that the enemy lurks within one's own circle. While the text itself has faded from common circulation, the title captures the genre's core conviction that drink transforms trusted companions into destroyers, and that the path to ruin is paved with familiar faces.
