My Lady Valentine by Octavia Roberts
"My Lady Valentine" by Octavia Roberts is a novel written in the early 20th century. It centers on Caleb Whitman, a hardheaded magazine editor who scorns storybook romance until an anonymous poem and letters signed “Henry B. Luffkin” draw him into a mystery and a budding attachment in a quiet lakeside town. The book promises a witty clash between reason and rapture, with key figures including Caleb’s shrewd friend Radding, the bluff
ferryman Captain Luffkin, the stern Aunt Roxana, and Roxana’s niece Nancy Rose, whose charm unsettles Caleb’s “sane” ideals. The opening of My Lady Valentine follows Caleb as he edits a Valentine issue devoted to love, railing against sentimental fiction while betting Radding that the poem “To My Unknown Lover,” signed by “Henry B. Luffkin,” was clearly written by a woman. After playful exchanges—including a gift of knitted wristlets from “Henry” and Radding’s teasing evidence that a real Henry Luffkin exists—Caleb’s vacation detours to Deep Harbor, where he boards with Captain Luffkin and meets austere Aunt Roxana’s secret garden via an empty summer house. There he encounters Nancy Rose, Roxana’s niece, and their lively, covert conversations transform his “sane courtship” novel into a frank celebration of love’s irrational pull. Hints of Nancy’s hidden struggle emerge: her tears on the ferry, the cryptic “Great Happiness” she seeks, and a troubling need for money. Caleb covertly arranges through Radding to buy heirlooms Nancy offers under the Luffkin alias, even as a handsome army sergeant looms as a possible complication. The section closes with village color—a planned box sociable, Abby’s errands, Roxana’s strict oversight—and Caleb watching the post for a pivotal letter. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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About this eBook
| Author | Roberts, Octavia, 1875-1972 |
|---|---|
| LoC No. | 17029519 |
| Title | My Lady Valentine |
| Original Publication | Boston: The A.M. Davis Co., 1916. |
| Credits | Susan E., David E. Brown, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature |
| Subject | Manners and customs -- Fiction |
| Subject | New York (State) -- Social life and customs -- Fiction |
| Subject | Man-woman relationships -- New York (State) -- Fiction |
| Category | Text |
| EBook-No. | 78169 |
| Release Date | Mar 11, 2026 |
| Copyright Status | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 158 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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