Gentle Julia

"Gentle Julia" by Booth Tarkington is a story that looks at love and family in the early 1900s. The book tells about Julia Atwater, but really focuses on how her niece, Florence, sees the world of romance and growing up around her. Florence is trying to figure out who she is as she watches her aunt and cousins deal with their own love lives and what people expect of them. The story uses funny conversations, especially between Florence and her cousin Herbert, to show how young people can misunderstand things as they start to think about relationships and their place in society. It hints that there will be interesting changes as these young people start to chase after love and try to climb the social ladder.