Lisa Vale is part of a five novel series about the wealthy Boston Vale family created by Olive Higgins Prouty. The most famous of these was Now Voyager, starring the suppressed mouse of the family, poor Aunt Charlotte. With psychological help from Dr. Jaquith, she transforms from ugly duckling into a society leader, well portrayed in one of my favourite films starring Bette Davis.
Lisa is married to Charlotte's brother Rupert, a rigid husband and strict father. Though satisfied in her marriage, we learn early on that her heart completely belongs to his business acquaintance, Barry Firth - and his in return. Both married, they do nothing about it except send coded messages about mundane things, knowing the other acknowledges the thought. An example to her children, Lisa would never have an affair.
A good deal of the novel was tied up with Lisa'a daughter Fabia, a spoiled princess who wants to be married to Dan, a young doctor with eyes only for medicine. The other portion dealt with her son, nicknamed 'Windy', whose young adventures catch him in a blackmail scheme that Lisa extricates him from, followed by a crippling attack of infantile paralyses. I was hoping for Lisa to be the central figure, and my patience was amply rewarded in the last third of the novel, when it's revealed the family has lost their finances. Behind Rupert's back, Barry and Lisa design a plot which saves the family. Much like Now, Voyager, their unspoken bond shows benefit, as they both unselfishly put the other first.
Not yet a butterfly, Aunt Charlotte makes appearances, as does Dr. Jaquith, strict Grandmother Vale, and Lisa's younger son Murray and older daughter June. Murray was the star of another Prouty novel Home Port, where they all made appearances. I find it interesting to meet the family at different points in time, and from different perspectives. There are two others in the series to read - Fabia, starring the youngest daughter, and White Fawn, about Fabia and Dan's relationship. A fan of the family and it's characters, it was great to visit with them and their friends, like Renee Beauchamp, who certainly deserves her own novel.
Olive Higgins Prouty also wrote the classic Stella Dallas.
1938 / Hardcover / 404 pages
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