The Shadow of the Bars

# The Shadow of the Bars

This issue of The Household Library (November 16, 1888) is dominated by the novel The Shadow of the Bars by Ernest de Lancey Pierson. The narrative opens with Alice's release from prison after a one-year sentence. Disoriented by freedom after months in confinement, she experiences simultaneous joy and terror—delighting in natural scenery while fearing recapture. She flees to the woods, eventually reaching a town where her prison-issued brown dress marks her as a convicted criminal. In a small shop, Alice encounters a poster advertising "The Delevan Diamonds," a serialized story based on actual events. The shopkeeper recounts the tale: a woman employed as a companion was arrested when diamonds entrusted to her vanished from her employer's bureau, receiving a year's sentence despite suspicions about the employer's sister. Alice reacts with extreme distress to this account, suggesting personal connection to the real case underlying the fictional narrative.