The Bent Twig

The Bent Twig is a portrait of a girl trying to grow into her own skin in a family that refuses to fit anywhere. Sylvia Marshall is not being raised to be decorative or compliant. In her parents' unconventional household, children help with real work, think for themselves, and question everything. But this freedom comes at a cost: Sylvia feels the sting of being different, of watching her family fall short of town expectations and university pretension alike. When her glamorous Aunt Victoria appears from a world of Vermont mansions and Paris apartments, Sylvia catches a glimpse of another life and must reckon with her own desires and the moral weight of privilege. First published in 1915, this novel crackles with the energy of a young woman refusing to be bent into someone else's shape. It captures a specific historical moment when progressive ideals met the reality of American social climbing, and it remains startlingly contemporary in its examination of what we owe each other and what we owe ourselves.