The rise of a star

The rise of a star by Edith Ayrton Zangwill is a novel written in the early 20th century. It follows Frances West, a seasoned American stage actress and single mother, whose long-awaited success clashes with the social demands of millionaire John P. Vandeleur when he seeks to marry her daughter, Imogen. The story probes the tension between art and respectability, independence and family duty, as Frances weighs her career against the claims of love, class, and caregiving.

The opening of the novel finds Frances scoring her first real hit in Chicago, only to be confronted by Vandeleur, who wants to marry Imogen on condition that Frances abandon the stage. Torn between her breakthrough and her daughter’s future, she yields and becomes Mrs. Lennox in New York high society, where she is stifled by polite routines and a carefully managed life. A tempting new role rekindles her passion, but Imogen’s pregnancy and fear bind Frances to sacrifice again. After a difficult birth, the beautiful, detached Imogen and the rigorously trained nurses fail to help a frail, crying baby, Joan, who does not thrive. Alarmed, Vandeleur dismisses the nurses and asks Frances to take charge; through patient, hands-on care—cradling, walking, and softly speaking—Frances begins to soothe the child, finding a new, hard-won purpose in the act of mothering. (This is an automatically generated summary.)