Prudence Palfrey was published by James R. Osgood & Co. in 1874. The novel tells the story of a young woman in a New England town — the ward of an elderly lawyer named Domat — whose passage from girlhood to womanhood is complicated by her guardian’s possessive affection, the attentions of a young man, and the social pressures of a community that monitors its members closely.
The novel is a comedy of manners set in the same New England world that Aldrich drew on throughout his career — the world of The Story of a Bad Boy seen from the perspective of young adulthood rather than childhood. The social fabric is dense: everyone knows everyone, reputations are fragile, and the gap between public propriety and private feeling creates both humor and pathos.
Aldrich’s prose is characteristically elegant — he was one of the most polished stylists of his generation, and contemporary readers valued the quality of his sentences as much as the substance of his plots. The novel moves with a lightness that belies its engagement with serious themes: the power adults exercise over young people, the difficulty of establishing an independent identity in a close community, and the ways love can shade into control.
The book was well received on publication and contributed to Aldrich’s reputation as one of the leading American novelists of the 1870s — a reputation that would fade considerably in the twentieth century as tastes shifted toward rougher, more ambitious fiction.
Collecting Prudence Palfrey
First edition (James R. Osgood & Co., Boston, 1874): Cloth binding.
Market values:
- First edition, fine: $30–$80
- Very good: $10–$30