Narcissa, or the Road to Rome; In Verona
Narcissa White lives a quiet life in rural Vermont, feeding turkeys outside her old house and dreaming of Rome. She has never considered herself beautiful, not when compared to her more glamorous neighbor, not when surrounded by the plainness of her everyday existence. But when the mysterious Romulus Patten arrives asking about the road to Rome, everything shifts. He shows her pictures of exotic roses, and suddenly her private fantasies of luxurious dresses and distant adventure feel within reach. Richards captures that precise, fragile moment when a young woman's longings finally meet the possibility of escape. The novel moves at the pace of reverie, letting readers sit with Narcissa in her pastoral stillness before the world intrudes. Beneath its gentle surface lie deeper questions about self-perception, the ache of wanting more than your life offers, and whether dreams are refuge or trap. A wistful Victorian romance about the dangerous beauty of hoping.
