12 h 43 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 12 h 43 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What holds a family together when inheritance brings power, authority turns harsh, and a daughter is cast aside?
On the Chesapeake shore, family ties carry the weight of inheritance and harsh authority. In The Discarded Daughter; or, The Children of the Isle, Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte Southworth brings these concerns into a domestic and sentimental novel. Its title points toward a rejected daughter and children linked to an island.
At its heart is a struggle between the power of the strong and the enduring strength of love. Property, family name, and the authority of parents or guardians frame the book’s concerns. Against that pressure, affection offers warmth: the bonds between parents, children, friends, and sweethearts become a source of strength in hardship.
What you’ll discover
- Family under pressure Explore a family drama shaped by inheritance, harsh authority, and the need for love.
- The Chesapeake shore Enter a coastal setting where questions of family and belonging give the story its stakes.
- Inheritance and power Consider how property and family name can place one person’s future in another’s hands.
- Love amid hardship Find warmth in affection that offers strength when other sources of support fail.
- Feeling at the center Experience the open emotion of a sentimental novel concerned with loyalty and family ties.
Who will love it
This book is for readers who love family sagas with big feelings, old Maryland scenery, storms at sea, brave young heroines, and love and conscience set against money and power.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A lonely heiress meets her future tyrant
- A violent night ends a mother's life
- Alice is married and the pattern is set
- Two children grow up between sea and storm
- A vanished mother leaves two orphans on the isle
- Elsie returns and the lovers' quarrel begins
- A father locks his daughter in the attic
- A mother arranges a wedding and signs away her land
- Obedience, conscience and the cost of love
- Money, inheritance and how the story is told
Who’s who
- Alice Chester GarnetA gentle heiress of Mount Calm who is forced into marriage and chooses patience and duty, yet acts boldly to protect her daughter.
- General Aaron GarnetA polished war hero who wants land and control, rules his family through fear and charms the world with his manners.
- Elsie GarnetAlice's bright, strong-willed daughter who loves the doctor Magnus Hardcastle and keeps her promise to him against her father.
- Magnus HardcastleA cheerful, generous country doctor and Elsie's betrothed, who would rather work hard in poverty than give up the woman he loves.
- Miss Josephine CotterHugh Hutton's thrifty, outspoken aunt, called Miss Joe, who raises two island orphans with little money and a great deal of love.
- Hugh HuttonThe last of the Huttons of the Isles, a brave, honest boy who grows up poor and dreams of earning a good name.
- Garnet SeabrightCalled Nettie, a fiery, sun-browned island orphan who adores General Garnet and her brother Hugh and fears nothing.
- Lionel HardcastleMagnus's polished cousin, the heir of Hemlock Hollow, who comes back from the sea and is chosen as the next husband for the heiress.
Formats and delivery
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- 15-minute summary
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- Paperback
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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La Fille abandonnée, ou Les Enfants de l’île
by Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte Southworth · 1852
A tyrant father locks his daughter in an attic to force a marriage that would join two Maryland estates.
Medium level10–20 hours to readfrançais
Excellent
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In short
What happens when a father treats his daughter as a way to add land to his own? E.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A lonely heiress meets her future tyrant
The story begins at Mount Calm, a white mansion on the highest hill above St. Clara's Bay. The Chester family has held its thousands of acres since the county was settled. When the Revolution comes, Judge Chester and his two sons go to war. Only the father returns, and the sons are buried at Yorktown.
That leaves the whole inheritance to a fragile girl of seventeen, Alice. She lives in near isolation with her kind, sickly mother. A young minister, Milton Sinclair, comes to the parish and teaches her history and poetry, and the two fall in love. Her mother approves.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1852
- Language
- français
- Reading time
- 8 h 15 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Southworth, Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte. The Discarded Daughter; or, The Children of the Isle. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-discarded-daughter-or-the-children-of-the-isle.
Southworth, E. D. E. N. (2026). The discarded daughter; or, the children of the isle. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-discarded-daughter-or-the-children-of-the-isle (Original work published 1852)
Southworth, Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte. The Discarded Daughter; or, The Children of the Isle. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-discarded-daughter-or-the-children-of-the-isle.
@book{southworth2026discarded,
author = {Southworth, Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte},
title = {The Discarded Daughter; or, The Children of the Isle},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-discarded-daughter-or-the-children-of-the-isle},
note = {First published 1852}
}
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What is The Discarded Daughter about?
It follows an heiress forced into marriage with a cruel general, her daughter Elsie who defies him for love, and two orphans raised on a bay island. Together they face storms, lost inheritances and questions of duty and justice.
Who is Garnet Seabright in The Discarded Daughter?
Garnet Seabright, called Nettie, is a spirited orphan raised by Miss Joe on Hutton's Island. General Garnet is her godfather and guardian, and she grows up fiercely loyal to him and to her adopted brother Hugh.
Where and when is the story set?
It is set on the western shore of Maryland, near the mouth of the Potomac and among the islands of Chesapeake Bay. The action begins at the close of the American Revolution and follows two generations.
The author
Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte Southworth
1819–1899 · American novelist
Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte Southworth (1819–1899) was an American novelist born in Washington, D.C. She worked as a teacher before earning her living by writing. Her first novel, Retribution, appeared in 1849. She wrote novels and serialized fiction during the nineteenth century and lived for many years in Georgetown, where she died.
More by Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte Southworth
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