A PROPER PURSUIT BY LYNN AUSTIN

A PROPER PURSUIT by LYNN AUSTIN is the charming story of Violet Hayes, a young lady of twenty living at the end of the nineteenth century, who goes to Chicago to find her mother, to find love, and to find evidence against widow O'Neill in order to stop her father from marrying her!
Violet has just finished her education at Madame Beauchamp's charm school but finds herself ill equipped as far as life in the real world is concerned. Her father grudgingly allows her to travel to the big city to spend time with her grandmother and great aunts, each of whom has the "ideal" suitor for her, except for her rather eccentric Aunt Birdie who keeps telling her to marry for love and Aunt Matt who feels that she should rather remain single than become some rich man's slave! Her father expects her to come back to Rockport and marry the very boring Herman Beckett, whose mother is a great friend of Maude O'Neill.
Violet has a sharp wit, a vivid imagination, and fancies herself to be quite a detective! These attributes have been fed by the crime and romance novels that her best friend smuggled into school.
Violet is a beautiful young lady and causes quite a stir in her Aunt Agnes' social set, where she practises the decorum learnt at Madame Beauchamp's school whilst suppressing her boredom! Aunt Matt gets her involved in marches for women's liberation, and her grandmother takes her to the slums where she works among the poor. She tries hard in all these situations and learns a lot from her grandmother and great aunts, but doesn't feel like following any of their specific paths.  Her grandmother is a godly woman who tells Violet to seek the calling God has chosen for her.
She feels betrayed by her father and used by her suitors who each have a reason for their courtship of her which has nothing to do with true love. It is only when she comes to know the One who loves her the way she is, her Heavenly Father, that she realizes that He has a special plan for her life and that He has been searching for her just as she searched for Aunt Birdie when she wandered off, and as she is desperately trying to find her mother. The story of the prodigal son becomes very real to her when she hears it told by Dwight Moody. She also realizes that she herself has used people to further her search for her mother and in order to find the truth behind the death of widow O'Neill's husband.
There is a lot of depth in this novel and the story is told in a delightful way. We get to know the characters and to understand why they act the way they do.
The city of Chicago is celebrating mankind's progress at the World's Fair, and it is against this backdrop that Violet comes to grips with her true self and what it is she really wants in life. I first read this novel some years ago and have just re-read it with great enjoyment. It is a really good read.


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