Hand-Picked Alternatives for Fans of Lena Rivers: Cult Guide

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A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Wife Against Wife perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

During World War I, American pilot John Lothbury joins the French Air Force. When his plane is shot down in combat, the French government reports that he was killed, but in fact he was captured and placed in a German POW camp. Meanwhile, back in the U.S., his brother has embezzled $10,000 from businessman Wallace Straker, and when he's notified that his brother has been killed, he blames the theft on him. John's fiancée marries Straker to avoid a scandal but is still in love with John. John eventually escapes from the POW camp and makes his way back to the U.S.

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Stannard Dole, an American sculptor, falls in love with model Gabrielle Gautier while vacationing in Paris, France, and leaves before completing the statue for which she modeled. Later, Gabrielle arrives in New York City, where she discovers that Stannard is married and his wife refuses to divorce him. Stannard persuades Gabrielle to remain until he can finish the statue, and places her in the care of a friend, Dr. Ethan Bristol. The sculptor falls ill and dies, though not before triumphantly completing his work and learning that Ethan plans to marry Gabrielle. Mrs. Dole is given a position in the Bristol's home and tries to separate the couple by exposing Gabrielle's former liaison, but their child holds them together.

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of A Man of Iron perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

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Philip Durban, a wealthy iron manufacturer, marries Claire Bowdoin, the young daughter of a family of impoverished blue-bloods. Claire, who enters into matrimony only to provide for her mother's welfare, remains at first coldly indifferent to Philip, and he, in turn, remains aloof. Claire eventually comes to love Philip, but he fails to respond to any of her advances. She eventually goes abroad, where she encounters Prince Novakian, an Italian, who becomes infatuated with her. Philip learns of Novakian's amorous advances and goes to Italy, where he is challenged to a duel for taking a punch at the prince. Philip is wounded in the duel, and Novakian is slain. Under the stress and excitement of the moment, Claire casts aside her pose of indifference and rushes to her husband, tending his wounds and at long last convincing him of her love.

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A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Two Shall Be Born perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

As he lies dying, Count Florian Zuleski of Poland, the head of a committee working for perpetual peace among European nations, entrusts his daughter, Mayra, with the dangerous mission of delivering some important documents to New York. Arriving in the United States, Mayra is unable to establish contact with the Polish representative and goes to live with her aunt. She soon meets Brian Kelly, who is working as a traffic cop after being disinherited by his irate millionaire father for not entering into a marriage of convenience with patrician Janet Van Wyck. Brian and Mayra are secretly married, and she is finally able to deliver the papers, but she is immediately kidnapped by the Polish traitor, Baron von Rittenheim, who takes her to a deserted house in the slums. Mayra is severely beaten but refuses to divulge the whereabouts of the vital documents. She is rescued by Brian, von Rittenheim is turned over to the police, and Brian is reconciled with his father.

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Larry Brainerd is let out of Sing Sing on parole and wants to leave his life of crime behind, but his old gang plots to "get" him.

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Children of the Whirlwind perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

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Cynthia Redfield elopes with Ernest Herrick, against the wishes of her socially ambitious mother and an unscrupulous millionaire, Bronson Gibbs, who has courted Cynthia with his position. Four years later Gibbs plots with Veerah Vale, a Greenwich Village vamp, with whom Ernest becomes involved. Divorce proceedings follow with an interlocutory decree, but Cynthia and Ernest are reunited following a serious injury to their child.

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A high-society woman, mingling with the artistic set in Nrw York City, gets snared in a tangle of lies, and is forced to fight against overwhelming odds to care for her beloved child.