Wow. This was so bad. This was so astonishingly bad. Anyone who wants to claim that people were better writers 75 years ago needs to read this book. Wow, it was bad. I could write more, about its weird inclusion of mystery reveals when no mystery was set up; about its entirely unconvincing and predictable romance; about its blythe conservatism that has upper class people merrily laughing about how the lower classes are like animals, really; about its wildly bizarre approach towards family values, in which a father is allowed to desert a daughter with absolutely no consequences--but, to be honest, that would require my spending more time thinking about this book, and I have rarely experienced such relief upon reaching the last page as I did with this ghastly excuse for a novel. My god, reader, it was so bad.