Margaret Deland

The Iron Woman illustared Margaret Deland

This was a hard book to get into. I just didn't like any of the characters. I won't say I hated them all (that's reserved for books like From Here to Eternity), but when you don't care about the characters, you don't care about the story. What it essentially boils down to is a trio of childhood friends. (I'm not counting Nannie because she just wasn't very imporant.) Spoiled rich boy Blair gets engaged to mentally unstable Elizabeth while both are still in their teens. They break up before doing the I Do's. A couple of years later Elizabeth is engaged to do-gooder medical student David. When they have a minor (in my opinion) disagreement about money, Elizabeth decides to run off and marry Blair just to stick it to David. You know the old saying: marry in haste, repent in leisure, which is what the back half of the book is about. Nobody ends up happy. The end. (less)