Mary Beaumont (author)

Rosalina Mellor Oakes (14 April 1849 – 25 December 1910), known by the pen name Mary Beaumont, was an English author.

[10] In addition to painting a vivid picture of her native Yorkshire, many of her works show Victorian attitudes towards social issues like colonialism and women's emancipation.

This collection includes five short stories: "A Ringby Lass," "Jack," "The White Christ," "Miss Penelope's Tale," and "The Revenge of Her Race."

It was popular enough that it was reprinted in Stories by English Authors: The Orient, a 1902 collection that also included Rudyard Kipling's "The Man Who Would Be King.

"The Revenge of Her Race" is set in colonial New Zealand and tells the tale of a beautiful Maori woman named Maritana who marries an Englishman.

Although the narrator shows Maritana in a sympathetic light, the story and its critical reception demonstrate the influence of scientific racism in the 1890s.

"[13] Like the title story in A Ringby Lass, Joan Seaton is set in Yorkshire, specifically in a fictional village called Percival-Dion (or Parsifal-Dion).

[15][16][17] Her recurring use of the Yorkshire setting for her fiction led to the perception that Beaumont's work participated in the larger movement of British regional literature.

This collection contains ten stories: "Two New Women," "The Avenger," "An Askedale Woman," "Alison," "The Heart of Dandy Fane," "Ould Weather-Glass," "The Lovers of Avino," "His Wife's Hand," "An Old Score," and "His Enemy."

Speaking to Edward, Daphne expresses her opinion that marriage is not necessary for a happy life, and she suggests that she will start a family by adopting a child.

Daphne refuses a marriage proposal from Edward, but he decides to remain her friend in the hope that she will eventually change her mind.