The Priceless Pearl

(from Grosset & Dunlap dj flap)

"The girl is simply too good-looking," said Bunner, the office manager, in a high complaining voice. "She is industrious, intelligent, punctual and well-mannered, but simply too good-looking -- a disturbing element in the office on account of her appearance. I made a grave mistake in engaging her." As a result, Pearl Leavitt lost her fourth job in ten months. She was never insulted; no one threatened her virtue or offered to run away with her. It was simply the disturbing charm of good looks.

And so, since even good-looking people must eat, Pearl Leavitt indulged in a bit of innocent impersonation and took a job as governess at Southampton on the short of Long Island. Here surrounded by three children, their mother, and with their bachelor uncle in the offing to supply romance, Pearl had need for all her wits and her good looks; and the story of how she won is filled with shrewd understanding and charming humor.

Alice Duer Miller was a suffragist -- her satirical poem collection "Are Women People?" (1915) influenced public opinion on the cause -- and this may be, in part, why Pearl is one of the most delightful and sympathetic characters in light fiction from the time. She's stunningly beautiful, which gets her in trouble: constantly sacked from jobs she's eminently qualified for for being distracting to her male colleagues. Her explosive indictment of this kind of sexism -- in the boardroom of the latest firm to let her go -- is played for humor, but Pearl's, and her author's, message rings through: "Every inch the feminist", both! What makes Pearl's situation so sad, and her character so appealing, is the sensitive, generous, immensely kind and friendly spirit she has to quash to avoid being misinterpreted. There's very little romance in the book but it's more fun, in a way, to just follow Pearl's adventures as she draws on her tremendous fund of good temper and emotional intelligence to, a la Miss Flora (Poste), set a disorderly household right. The contrast between Pearl's forthrightness and Mrs. Conway's "kittenishness" is an interesting illustration of women's different responses to their structural conditions. It's also refreshing that both Pearl and her best friend are highly educated -- they met in college and Augusta actually has a PhD. And it's a testament to Duer's good writing that the story feels consistently romantic, despite the two leads not meeting in person, unmasked, until the last chapter. Also, I'm going to start using the male mc's response whenever "he doesn't agree with you but is too lazy to argue it out.": "Well, it's a point of view." The Priceless Pearl is not great literature, but it's a pretty great, and very quick, comfort read. I recommend. My point of view. :)