Richard Vandermarck: A Novel

The narrator begins life as an orphan taken in by a reclusive, business‑obsessed uncle. Her world is confined to a gloomy, aging house on a drab street, where servants and a succession of nurses attend to her needs more like a commodity than a child. School is an afterthought; she is educated at home, surrounded by stale furnishings and strict rules that forbid her from wandering the street alone.

Inside this cramped existence, a small garret room becomes her sanctuary, flooded with sunlight and the few treasured trinkets she can gather. There, imagination stirs against the monotony, hinting at a yearning for something beyond the house’s dim walls. As she grows, the contrast between the suffocating routine and the bright, secret space sets the stage for the choices and encounters that will shape her future.