Cover of The Butterfly House by Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman Ebook The Butterfly House
Ebook · Fractal Press

The Butterfly House

Author
Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman
Language
English
Length
158 pages
ISBN
9781836101833
Published
18 February 2026
Imprint
Fractal Press
  • small-town life
  • social ambition
  • female rivalry
  • community gossip
  • social class
  • identity
  • constrained lives
  • tradition
  • quiet conflict
  • New Jersey village

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Description

Set in the self-satisfied village of Fairbridge, New Jersey, the novel examines the quiet rivalries and ambitions that simmer beneath polite society. Figures such as the aspiring Mrs. Wilbur Edes and the enigmatic Alice Mendon move through a world proud of its narrow traditions. The opening vividly portrays a town blind to its limits, as social clubs and subtle judgments shape identity, desire, and restrained conflict.

Author

Mary E. Wilkins Freeman (1852–1930) grew up in Randolph, Massachusetts, and wrote the New England village as if every parlour were a theatre of will. A New England Nun is the famous short weather of a woman who will not be hurried into marriage; Pembroke is the same climate at novel length — pride, church, and a stubbornness that can freeze a town. She later took the Howells Medal. The regional is never small in her hands. Thrift has a pulse.

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