The Uncle of an Angel: 1891

Meet Mr. Hutchinson Port, a fastidious Philadelphian whose elaborate health regimens and rigid daily routines would impress no one but torment himself entirely. When his sister dies, leaving her daughter Dorothy in his care, Port's carefully ordered world threatens to collapse. Dorothy is chaos in a petticoat, beautiful, beguiling, and absolutely determined to drag her uncle out of his comfort zone and into the glittering social world of Saratoga and Narragansett Pier. What follows is a supremely entertaining battle of wits: propriety versus passion, the life of discipline versus the life of pleasure. Dorothy has every intention of marrying well and living brilliantly, and she wields her charm like a weapon to coax, manipulate, and ultimately triumph over her long-suffering guardian. Wry, affectionate, and sharp-eyed about the absurdities of genteel American life, this comedy of manners captures a particular historical moment, the twilight of the Victorian era, when women were beginning to chafe against the boundaries men like Port had built. The book endures because Dorothy is a delightful schemer, Port is a lovably stuffy curmudgeon, and their relationship, for all its friction, becomes something richer than either expected.