The Breath of Slander: Or Virtue Triumphs

Summary

Picture a cozy cottage nestled in the Pennsylvania mountains where a hard-working and virtuous young brother and sister live in quiet contentment. Add a love-struck doctor who is too timid to tell Norine, the sister, how much he adores her! He is about to announce his love when fate brings a stranger into their home, to be nursed back to health by the impressionable Norine. As the story unfolds, we learn the true natures of all we encounter. There are exciting twists and turns and not a few coincidental interventions! Will love and virtue triumph?

Written in the late nineteenth century, this book reflects and reinforces the attitudes of the time. Virtue is lauded and slander is to be avoided. Still, Norine and her brother Jim are more fully developed characters than appear in similar books of the period. Jim, in particular, is considered “eccentric,” yet well respected by his community.