The Ordeals of Elly Robin by P.D. Quaver
The Ordeals of Elly Robin was conceived as a sort of multi- volume, historical fantasia. The title intentionally echoes The Perils of Pauline, an early movie serial. And the publishing strategy harkens back to the days when novels were commonly published in serial form. Thus, though the books can be read separately, they together form a single vast novel—and a multi-sided portrait of the United States at the dawn of the twentieth century.
It was a fascinating period characterized by enormous change. Horses were replaced by automobiles and live theater by a virtual reality of flickering images. Rickety machines built of wood and canvas took to the skies. And the United States was in the process of becoming an industrial and—with the advent of the First World War—military powerhouse that would dominate the world.
Adrift in this turbulent landscape is Elly Robin. Her travels, adventures, and—yes—ordeals will take her (and the reader) from vaudeville stages to hobo jungles to mining towns to the gilded palaces of the rich; she will witness the San Francisco earthquake, the birth of jazz, the horrors of the First World War; Zelig-like, she will encounter the likes of Emma Goldman, Louis Armstrong, Jack London and George Gershwin.
It will be an extraordinary journey, undertaken by a most extraordinary girl.