The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 6

Beth Brower's The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion is written as the fictional diary of Emma M. Lion, a young Englishwoman living in London. Emma resides at Lapis Lazuli House in the quirky neighborhood of St. Crispian's, where she is days away from turning 21, the age of legal majority. Orphaned years earlier, Emma has shouldered adult responsibilities without any corresponding legal authority and anticipates that her birthday will grant her legal authority over her own home. Her household includes Parian, a timid manservant; Agnes, an earnest Scottish maid and cook; and Tybalt, a cat she is fostering. In the adjoining residence, Lapis Lazuli Minor, lives Niall Pierce, a photographer who rents studio space and contributes to household expenses. Emma's closest friends also include the Duke of Islington and Hawkes, the local vicar.

The journal opens on New Year's Day as Emma sets an ambitious reading schedule and reflects on her approaching independence. The Whereabouts Lane Committee, a local governing body, visits to demand that Pierce demonstrate "neighbourhood loyalty" by attending community events, insisting on labeling him the lane's resident foreigner despite Emma's correction that he is English-born.

On Twelfth Night, Emma receives an anonymous invitation and attends a lavish masquerade organized by The Reprobates Ten, a band of young men. The ballroom is presided over by a mysterious masked figure the crowd calls Oberon, who conducts silent toasts while the audience recites lines from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. When Oberon offers his crown to various guests and all refuse, Emma alone accepts, placing it back on his head and earning a collective gasp. One of the Reprobates, known as The Boy, tells Emma that Oberon is "cursed" and that a woman in white who dances with him cannot break the curse, though a future "Titania," the destined woman who could, might one day succeed. The Boy warns Emma never to speak of Oberon outside this night.

Emma's social standing shifts when Lady Sheridan, a society matron and friend of Aunt Eugenia, invites her to tea, motivated by Emma's association with Islington. At the tea, Lady Braithwaite publicly humiliates Emma by recounting how she lived with the Braithwaites as a charity case after her parents' deaths. Emma responds with composure, drawing on skills honed at Fortitude, a girls' preparatory school she attended, for enduring insults. Two younger guests, Annalise Clifford and May Northgate, daughters of other invited ladies, quietly whisper their admiration.

On January 13th, Emma turns 21. She looks in the mirror and finds the "inch of added light" she had promised herself, a metaphor for winter passing and spring ahead. Charles Goddard, a persistent unwanted suitor, arrives to declare his love; Emma deflects him with humor. At a birthday supper hosted by Saffronia March, a family friend and artist, the surprise guests are Hawkes and Pierce, just returned from Cornwall. They present Emma with a gift from themselves and Islington: a gold pendant necklace featuring a lion mid roar, an antique found in a side-street shop. Inside the box are birthday notes from all three friends. That night, the Reprobates serenade her outside her window.

Two days later, Aunt Eugenia, Emma's domineering aunt, arrives unannounced to interrogate her about disobeying orders to spend Christmas at Spencer Court and about her connection to Islington. Hawkes and Islington both arrive during the visit, creating a chaotic scene. Hawkes covers for Emma by supplying the name of her fictional chaperone, "Miss Agnes Dowd," signaling that he knows the chaperone does not exist. When Aunt Eugenia demands to see the man who was rude at Emma's door on Guy Fawkes Night, Emma summons Parian instead of the actual culprit, Pierce, and Aunt Eugenia forces the terrified servant to reenact the confrontation in a farcical display. She presents Emma with Mixing in Society: A Complete Manual of Manners, ordering her to treat it as her bible.

When Emma delivers a misplaced manuscript to the Countess of Alwick, Islington's eccentric aunt who writes adventure novels, the countess reveals that Islington reserves his Thursdays for a very small circle and that inviting Emma into those days signals genuine regard, a significant distinction in the Devereux family. She alludes to "unpleasant business" in Islington's past and mentions that his father disapproved of him.

Pierce purchases a worn pub bench for The Cleopatra, the local pub, as his neighborhood contribution, deliberately provoking the committee. In retaliation, the St. Crispian's Board of Order nails boards across his front door, citing improper permits. Pierce is forced to use Emma's entrance and receives a key to Lapis Lazuli House.

Emma's banker, Mr. Penury, secures her a trial position as personal secretary to Mrs. Whitaker, a wealthy merchant's wife. Her duties include managing correspondence and supervising Argus, Mrs. Whitaker's 15-year-old son, who has been sent down from Eton. Emma renames him "Tad" after discovering he was named for his repulsive uncle, Argus Fard, and begins winning his trust. On Emma's final Monday, Fard places his hand on her backside while she tends the fire. Emma instinctively swings the brass poker, smashing a Chinese urn containing cremated dog ashes. Tad claims responsibility, protecting Emma. Mrs. Whitaker terminates the trial but pays Emma in full.

A parallel thread follows Emma's friend Mary Bairrage, who is typing a manuscript for Professor Fletcher, a widower. Mary's nervousness around the professor and their intellectual chemistry lead Emma to conclude that Mary is falling in love, a suspicion reinforced when Mary begins spending time with Jack Hollingstell, a confidence man, as an apparent distraction.

During a Thursday dinner at Islington's, Pierce reveals he left England at roughly 12 years old as a stowaway and fell in with a photographer documenting the American Civil War. He describes finding young soldiers barely older than himself on battlefields, then breaks off, unaccustomed to sharing so much. On the walk home, Emma asks why he left England. Pierce does not answer but briefly touches the side of her hand, a gesture that catches her breath.

After church one Sunday, Emma jokingly asks Islington what secrets he carries. He visibly recoils, and Emma, mortified, chases him up the street and apologizes. She invites him to Lapis Lazuli for darts, and the afternoon becomes a gathering of all four friends. Emma reflects on their foursome as "a golden age." Earlier, she overheard Hawkes tell Islington that Emma's company is good for him, that he smiles more around her, as he used to with someone unnamed.

On St. Valentine's Day, Emma visits the Baron's Square fountain, where residents throw coins with specific gestures to signify romantic states. She throws a penny dated 1861, the birth year of Maxwell Stuart, her deceased first love, whispering a thank-you as the coin sinks. She discovers Hawkes has been sitting on a nearby bench the entire time. He offers to give the moment back if she wishes privacy; she tells him it was a thank-you. Later, Hawkes wades into the fountain to collect coins for the church. Emma impulsively joins him, slips, and falls face-first into the icy water. Hawkes pulls her out, strikes her back until she coughs up the water, and carries her to a passing carriage.

On the evening of February 28th, Emma finishes Whitman's "Song of Myself" in a heightened state, flushed and restless. Pierce enters the drawing room and asks what is wrong. They discuss Whitman's boldness in the half-lit room, Pierce quoting a line about being "untamed and untranslatable" (228). Emma begins to suggest a walk, but Pierce closes the distance and kisses her. When he starts to pull away, she pulls him back. A sound in the hallway causes them to spring apart. She retreats to her garret without speaking. The next day, they exchange notes through the wall, acknowledging what happened. Pierce offers to stay away; Emma asks why she would not want to see him. They agree to talk the following day, but Emma tells Pierce she does not yet know what to think. The volume ends on February 29th with their exchange unresolved and the future of their friendship left uncertain.