M. G. McClelland's 'Princess' opens not with its title character but with a domestic storm: General Percival Smith's proposal to move his family to Virginia. The narrator immediately establishes a satirical distance, describing the daughters' reaction as 'a perfect storm of disapproval' and their imagined horrors of 'cows, and snakes, and beetles.' This ironic voice, which mocks the young ladies' urban sensibilities, sets the tone for a novel that may treat its characters with more detachment than sympathy. The catalog subjects list 'Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; Divorce -- Fiction; Virginia -- Fiction,' yet the excerpts show divorce entering only later, through a letter, and Virginia serving more as a backdrop for family conflict than a fully realized setting.

The Ironic Narrator and Domestic Comedy

The narrator of 'Princess' adopts a consistently ironic stance toward the Smith family. The daughters' outrage is rendered in hyperbolic terms: they 'rose as one woman' and 'verbally sought to annihilate' the move. Their mother, meanwhile, 'cast daily and hourly the bread of suggestion and anticipation on the unthankful waters.' The biblical allusion is playful, undercutting the seriousness of the conflict. The narrator even notes that the general could escape 'the rhetorical consequences of his unpopular measure' by retreating to his club, while his wife 'was obliged to stay at home and endure it all.' This asymmetry between male and female spheres is presented without overt commentary, but the irony invites readers to question the family's dynamics. The prose is dense with compound sentences and elaborate metaphors, suggesting a writer who prizes verbal dexterity over plain storytelling.

Divorce as a Plot Mechanism, Not a Theme

Divorce appears only in the later excerpt, introduced through a letter from Mrs. Thorne to her estranged husband. The narrator reports that Thorne 'was not surprised at his wife's communication' and that he 'knew perfectly well that she would seek a divorce sooner or later.' The divorce is framed as a practical matter—Mrs. Thorne wishes to remarry—and the emotional weight falls on Thorne's irritation at her 'careless ingratitude.' Norma, reading the letter, 'returned it without comment,' and her friend's gossip about Cecil Cumberland's attentions suggests a social world where divorce is a subject of speculation. The catalog subject 'Divorce -- Fiction' is thus accurate but narrow: the excerpts treat divorce as a plot device to advance romantic tensions rather than a topic for moral or legal exploration. The novel may use divorce to enable a second marriage, but the excerpts give no indication of deeper commentary on the institution itself.

Virginia as a Setting of Absence

Despite being cataloged under 'Virginia -- Fiction,' the excerpts depict Virginia primarily as a place the Smith daughters dread. Their fears are generic: 'cows, and snakes, and beetles,' 'corn-bread, and tri-weekly mails,' 'colored servants.' The state is invoked as a symbol of rusticity and discomfort, not as a specific locale with its own culture or history. The narrator's description of the daughters' vision—'the background lowering with solitude, ennui, and colored servants'—reveals more about the characters' prejudices than about Virginia itself. The actual move is not described in the provided text; the story jumps instead to a later scene involving Thorne and Norma, set presumably elsewhere. Readers expecting a regional novel with detailed Virginia landscapes or social customs will find instead a domestic drama where the South functions as a catalyst for family conflict. The setting remains largely offstage, a blank space onto which characters project their anxieties.

Readers approaching 'Princess' should set aside expectations of a romance or a regional portrait. The excerpts suggest a novel more interested in the comedy of family strife and the mechanics of divorce than in its title character. The narrator's ironic voice rewards attention to word choice and tone, while the plot's reliance on letters and gossip indicates a story told through indirect revelation. The incomplete excerpts leave the central relationship between Norma and Thorne—and the identity of 'Princess'—unresolved, making this a text best read for its stylistic quirks and its period attitudes toward marriage and social mobility.