WeRead
Powered by ReaderPub
A newly wealthy heir returns from abroad to a coastal community, his family history traced back to a meek ancestor; along the way the narrative recounts a dramatic shipwreck and rescue, seaside amusements and scandals at a fashionable watering-place, romantic entanglements involving two young women, and the intrigues of a scheming antagonist whose plots unravel. Interwoven with comic character sketches and moral parables, the story explores social reintegration, pride and humility, and how sudden fortune alters private lives and public reputations, culminating in the protagonist's final homecoming and the resolution of rivalries and romances.
The author did not live to revise the original draft of “Mr. Waddy’s Return,” and therefore, when his other novels were published, shortly after his death, this one was not included. On looking it over again, after the lapse of years, it seemed to his sister, Miss Elizabeth W. Winthrop, too good to let die; and it was placed in the hands of Mr. Stevenson to give it such revision and condensation as it may be presumed that the author, had he lived, would have given it himself.