Clara Carter lives in luxury, but dreams solely of going to Vassar College and leading a scholarly life.  Her governess, Miss Miller, has encouraged this for years, but suddenly Clara’s aunt fires Miller and starts to groom her seventeen-year-old charge to be a debutante.  Clara’s father and aunt believe that Clara’s sole purpose in life is to regain the money and status that they have lost, and to do this she has to wed the de Vries heir.  So she is plunged into a dizzying whirl of balls, parties and the opera, with her best friend Lizzie as her only true rival.  As the Season progresses, Clara is going to learn many things about herself and the world she inhabits.

Ms Mitchell has written a compelling story about growing up and learning about what truly counts in life and what does not.  Just as the corset molds Clara into an object of beauty, so her aunt and those around her try to mold her into the ideal Victorian lady.  Having Clara narrate the tale in her own words makes it seem more immediate and personal, and although the time and place she inhabits are very different to ours, many of her challenges are the same.  Her own wishes and ideals almost get swept away by the desires of society and her family, and she has to learn for herself what exactly her family’s wealth and measure of power are built upon.  I particularly enjoyed the way I had imagined reading a possibly fairly frivolous tale of fashion and flirtation, but found myself reading something totally different, which saw through all the surface glitter into the depths below.  If you want a thought-provoking book that makes you think and plunges you into New York of the 1890s, then here it is.