A Prodigal in Love

A Prodigal in Love
	Cover, first edition, 1894
Author	Emma Wolf
Language	English
Subject	Home perplexities
Genre	Romance novel
Set in	San Francisco, California
Publisher	Harper
Publication date	1894
Publication place	United States
Pages	258

A Prodigal in Love was an American novel by Emma Wolf. Considered successful in its day,^[1] it was published in New York City by Harper in 1894. Set in San Francisco, California like Wolf's earlier novels, it told the story of home perplexities.^[2]

Plot

In her first novel, Other Things Being Equal, Wolf dealt with a problem. In this one, she is content to tell a story. The Herriotts, with whom this story chiefly deals, are an orphaned family of six girls. Constance Herriott had been left in charge after her mother's death. All went smoothly until Hall Kenyon fell in love with one sister and married another. Constance played the part of mother to all her sisters, to none more so than to the sister who most injured her. Paris, Rome, and other European cities are traveled through and described.^[2]^[3]

The title of the book is an attractive but not a very happy one; and the reader is uncertain as to which of the four leading characters is really "A Prodigal in Love": the husband who dissipates his love upon his wife's sister, the wife who squanders her love upon her sister's lover, the man who gives his love to the woman who says she can never return it, or the woman who spends all her love upon those who are dependent upon it, and upon her. This last, the voluntary scapegoat of them all, a scapegoat actuated solely by altruism, with hardly a shadow of egoism in her composition, is perhaps the most loveable of all Wolf's creations, but the interest will center about the love-affairs of the prodigals who marry each other against their mutual wills.^[4]

Characters

After the reader overcomes the prejudice inspired by the personal descriptions, they learn to like the characters, despite their wealth of golden hair, their luminous hazel eyes, their finely chiselled noses, their mouths steeled by sudden stubborn intolerance, their rounded, satiny wrists, the flashes of their white teeth, the grave music of their tender peaceful voices, the impulsive color of their olive cheeks, the refractory curls which are tossed back from their childist foreheads, and the glowing wine of summer which emanates from every inch of their wholesome physiques.^[4]

Constance, the eldest of the Herriotts, is a sweet, strong, ideal woman.^[3] She is mother, father, sister, brother, and guardian, all in one.^[4]
Eleanor, self-willed, passionate, and selfish. Eleanor learns through bitterness and cold, hard trial, the lessons of gentleness, submission, and wisdom.^[3]
The men in the book present very much the same contrasting picture.^[3]

Themes

In this romance novel, love and loyalty, sorrow and disappointment, as well as living and learning blend together as a basis for the author's theme.^[3]

References

^ Appletons' Annual Cyclopædia and Register of Important Events of the Year ... D. Appleton & Company. 1895. p. 391. Retrieved 8 June 2023. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
^ ^a ^b The Annual American Catalogue 1886-1900: Being the Full Titles, with Descriptive Notes, of All Books Recorded in the Publishers' Weekly, 1886-1900 with Author, Title, and Subject Index, Publishers' Annual Lists, and Directory of Publishers. Vol. 9. Publishers' weekly. 1895. p. 206. Retrieved 8 June 2023. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e "New Books". The Interior. 25 (1260). Western Presbyterian Publishing Company: 923. 19 July 1894. Retrieved 8 June 2023. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
^ ^a ^b ^c Hutton, Laurence (September 1894). Alden, Henry Mills (ed.). "Literary Notes". Harper's New Monthly Magazine. Vol. 89, no. DXXXII. Harper & Brothers. p. 648. Retrieved 8 June 2023. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.