Agnes, or, Beauty and Pleasure

Agnes; or, Beauty and Pleasure by G. W. M. Reynolds, Volume 1, serializes in August 1829 London. The narrative opens with mordant social commentary on the fashionable season's end, as Parliament adjourns and the wealthy depart for country estates and watering-places. Young unmarried women, exhausted from the marriage market, seek to restore their complexions; the text mordantly depicts how London society corrupts natural beauty and virtue into artificiality and cynicism. The story then introduces Morton Evelyn, a twenty-three-year-old gentleman of apparent means but actual financial ruin—possessing only fifty or sixty pounds from depleted Bank of England holdings, maintaining appearances through accumulated debts at his hotel. While strolling Regent Street in early evening, Evelyn observes a young prostitute distinguished by her newness to the trade, fresh beauty, modest dress, and evident despair—capturing his attention distinctly from the painted, hardened women surrounding her.