A Silver Brand

This issue of The Select Series (No. 69, November 26, 1890) contains two featured works. The primary serial is "A Silver Brand; or, The Secrets of Schwarzenberg" by Charles T. Manners, author of "Octavia's Pride." Set in Bavaria, the story opens with a nobly-born woman tending an rooftop garden atop an isolated building surrounded by dense woods. Despite her evident refinement and tragic past, she maintains a resolute demeanor. When three horsemen arrive and her servant Seippel summons her to an audience with "his royal highness," she refuses defiantly. The narrative establishes gothic and dramatic tensions through her mysterious isolation and resistance to authority. The issue also advertises "The County Fair," a story adaptation by Neil Burgess derived from his successful New York play, depicting rural New Hampshire life with humorous and touching domestic incidents.