Miss Dividends: A Novel

"Miss Dividends: A Novel" by Archibald Clavering Gunter is a story wrapped intricately around love, standing in society, and the differences between the East and West in America, mainly through the lives of Erma Travenion and Captain Harry Storey Lawrence. The novel starts with Captain Lawrence, fresh from a year in a Southern Utah mining camp, falling hard for the beautiful Erma Travenion. Lawrence, seeking to make a deal about a silver mine, is taken by Erma during a supper event in New York, leading their lives to cross unexpectedly. The beginning part of the story shows the different characters of Lawrence, a tough Westerner, against Erma, a rich heiress also called "Miss Dividends," as they struggle to find places in their social lives and personal dreams despite the pressure of what society expects. Their interactions bring up tough questions about love, goals, and how society shapes who people become.