Young Lives

In a modest Victorian parlour, a revolution simmers beneath polite conversation. When Henry Mesurier, the eldest son, and his sister Esther finally speak their truths to their formidable father, they ignite a family crisis that has been decades in the making. James Mesurier, a man of rigid principle and unspoken disappointments, cannot comprehend why his children yearn for something beyond the stable middle-class existence he has built for them. But Henry dreams of art, and Esther dreams of something unnamed both tethered by duty, both desperate to breathe. This is a novel about the first wounds of leaving home, the grief of disappointing those who love us best, and the terrible courage it takes to become oneself. Le Gallienne writes with aching tenderness about the distance between what parents provide and what children need. For readers who cherish the psychological depth of George Eliot or the quiet devastations of Henry James, Young Lives offers an overlooked gem from the fin-de-siecle, a story that asks: how much of ourselves must we sacrifice to belong?