Within the Law: From the Play of Bayard Veiller

"Within the Law: From the Play of Bayard Veiller" by Marvin Dana is a gripping story about justice and revenge in the early 1900s. It follows Mary Turner, a young woman unjustly sent to prison for theft. The story details her transformation from a wrongly accused victim to someone seeking retribution against a cruel world. Readers meet Mary as she wakes in a jail cell, forced to grapple with the unfair sentence she has received. The book looks back at her earlier life, showing her poverty and her struggle to remain honest despite the temptations around her. A main focus of the tale is how Mary must deal with both her outrage and her need for some sort of solace from a system that has hurt her. Also important in the story is Gilder, the store owner, and what he represents as a person only interested in wealth. The book is an argument against unfair treatment and shows the reader both the societal and personal failings that have hurt Mary.