Daphne Bruno

"Daphne Bruno" by Ernest Raymond is a novel written in the early 20th century. It appears to be a family and coming‑of‑age story set from late‑Victorian England into early urban modernity, following the brilliant but self‑regarding critic T. Tenter Bruno, his spirited daughter Daphne, her timid brother Owen, the warm servant Hollins, and the severe guardian Miss Durgon. The book explores how high-minded principles, class habits, and religious fashions collide with everyday love, grief, and child‑rearing. The opening of the novel follows T. Tenter Bruno awaiting news of his first child, revelling in his public persona while privately vowing to anchor life in pity rather than pose. A telegram announces a daughter, and on his night drive to the nursing home he imagines “Daphne” from infancy to bride, even as his wife Sheila endures pain, ambivalence, and then sudden exultation at the baby’s face. Back home, domestic life takes shape around Hollins’s bustling kindness, Eadigo the gardener’s blunt common sense, and Bruno’s demand for quiet so his work won’t be “shipwrecked” by a crying infant. A second pregnancy brings Sheila dread and a fixed foreboding; she insists on staying at home and dies after Owen’s birth, leaving Bruno grief‑struck yet eager to withdraw into his study. Pressed by his conventional sister Belle, he hires Miss Durgon, a rigid “lady” housekeeper‑guardian, sparking a low, constant skirmish with loyal Hollins.

Daphne Bruno, by Ernest Raymond. Republished by OpenStories from Project Gutenberg eBook #78201.