Summary
Aurelie’s odyssey begins within the claustrophobic sanctity of a New Orleans convent, a vessel of innocence seeking a horizon beyond ecclesiastical stone. Her liberation arrives via the rugged, salt-caked hands of Captain Lindstrom, a Mississippi riverboat sovereign who plucks her from anonymity. Yet, the river’s fluid freedom is ephemeral; Lindstrom, yearning for her domestic stability, transplants Aurelie to the stagnant, judgmental soil of a river valley town under the guardianship of his brother, John. Here, the foundling metamorphoses into a radiant cynosure, her beauty becoming a currency that both elevates and isolates her. Winning a regional beauty contest serves as a Faustian bargain, propelling her into the incandescent glow of the theatrical stage. Her meteoric ascent in the city, however, serves only to sharpen the provincial daggers of her hometown. Upon her return, she is met not with accolades, but with the cold friction of Victorian morality and social gatekeeping. Caught in a gravitational pull between three disparate archetypes of American masculinity—the intellectual Harlan Van Hart, the observant editor Wiley Curran, and the steadfast Arney Vance—Aurelie must navigate a labyrinth of reputation and desire to reclaim her agency in a world determined to categorize her as either a saint or a spectacle.
Synopsis
Aurelie, an orphan, escapes from a New Orleans convent and is adopted by Mississippi riverboat captain Lindstrom. So that she can have a more settled life, he sends her to live with his brother, John Lindstrom, a squatter in a small river valley town. There she develops into a beautiful woman and wins a newspaper's beauty contest, attracting an offer from a theatrical producer, which she accepts. She rapidly achieves success, but when she returns to town, she is spurned. Newspaper editor Wiley Curran and Harlan Van Hart, the college-educated son of Judge and Mrs. Van Hart, are both interested in her, but Aurelie ends up with Arney Vance.
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