She Walks in Beauty

By: Dawn Powell

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Synopsis: A coming-of-age story of two sisters living in their grandmother&’s boarding house in a small Ohio town just before the first world war and the characters who filter in an out of the house and their lives. For teenager Linda Shirley, her residence in a family boarding house is a fact to be hidden, ignored, and, eventually, escaped. She aims for a better life and tries desperately to win the approval of the town&’s elite, particularly the popular Courtenay Stall, over whom she pines. Her younger sister, Dorrie, is a dreamer who not only tolerates but often delights in the colorful guests of the house, from the reluctantly retired theater troupers to the glamorous young woman of ill-repute, the bed-bound intellectual in the attic to the circus snake charmer who keeps her &“babies&” in ill-secured boxes under her bed. For Dawn Powell, &“satire is people as they are; romanticism, people as they would like to be; realism, people as they seem with their insides left out.&” She Walks in Beauty is a satire in the most insightful sense, showing the specific clarity and cloudiness of two very different sisters&’ worldviews. This Belt Revivals edition includes a new introduction by critic Ilana Masad.