7 h 18 minAudiobook6 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 7 h 18 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
Bettina packs her battered trunk while rain hides the sea. Can she leave her grief behind?
Alone after her mother’s death, Bettina longs to escape the old seaside house and seek work in the city. Miss Matthews spends her days teaching, and familiar possessions carry painful memories of Bettina’s parents. When the doctor arrives through an April storm, he finds a young woman eager for life—and determined not to remain among shadows.
The doctor has promised Bettina’s mother that he will care for her, but he has no legal claim to guide her future. His thoughts turn to Diana, a wealthy woman whose judgment he trusts, now engaged to Ulric Van Rosen. Over tea beside the hearth, protection and independence pull against each other, while Bettina questions marriage without love.
What you’ll discover
- A restless young heart Meet Bettina, whose hunger for happiness presses against grief, loneliness, and other people’s judgments.
- Shelter from the storm Step into a candlelit room where a warm welcome briefly softens a painful conversation.
- Objects heavy with memory A banjo clock and Venetian keepsakes reveal why familiar surroundings can feel unbearable.
- Care with its limits Consider the doctor’s promise, and the difficult boundary between protecting someone and choosing for them.
- Love beyond mere safety Share Bettina’s unease at marriage that offers protection without the love she wants.
Who will love it
You will love this if you enjoy old-fashioned romance, seaside towns in early summer, and stories where honor and the heart pull in different directions.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A girl in mourning packs her trunk
- A proposal made from pity, not love
- Diana comes home and finds she is too late
- Lilacs, a borrowed wardrobe and a song
- Justin and Bettina find a golden afternoon
- Two people on the heights in an empty house
- A little silver ring and a flight over the sea
- A captain's flowers and Sophie's worries
- What the story is really about
Who’s who
- Bettina DolceA lonely, golden-haired girl of eighteen, half Venetian, who longs for warmth and beauty and is afraid of becoming like her faithless father.
- Dr. Anthony BlakeA respected surgeon who runs a sanatorium called Harbor Light and tries to keep his word, though he has loved Diana for years.
- Diana GregoryA wealthy, wise and gracious woman who returns from Europe to claim the man she has always loved.
- Justin FordA charming young man of fortune who flies a seaplane and finds his first real love in Bettina.
- Sophie MartensDiana's widowed friend, tender and shrewd, who sees the heartbreak coming and tries to guide the young ones.
- Captain StubbsA small, plain-spoken old sailor who loves fishing, flowers and his friends, and who has a private hope of his own.
- Miss MatthewsA faded, kind schoolteacher who shares Bettina's upper-floor rooms and is worn out by years of teaching.
- Sara DuffieldA sharp-tongued, fashionable girl who has long counted on Justin's attention and watches Bettina with a cold eye.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 7 h 18 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 6 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Read and hear Glory of Youth in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Glory of Youth
by Temple Bailey · 1913
A lonely girl in a lantern-lit tower accepts a surgeon's offer of marriage, mistaking the comfort of his care for love.
Easy read5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
A girl in black packs her trunk in a tower room while a storm batters the sea outside. A kind doctor climbs the winding stairs to stop her.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A girl in mourning packs her trunk
The story opens with Bettina Dolce, a red-gold-haired girl in mourning, packing a shabby trunk. Her mother has just died, and she lives at the top of the old Lane house above a stormy sea. She is poor, alone, and shunned by the town because her father was an Italian singer.
Dr. Anthony Blake, a respected surgeon with graying hair, climbs the stairs to find her. He is tired from a difficult operation, and he promised her dying mother to look after her. He offers to find her work and talks her into staying, and she gives in.
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What is Glory of Youth about?
It follows Bettina, a lonely young woman who promises to marry a surgeon out of gratitude, then falls in love with a young aviator. Around them, an older love between the surgeon and a wise friend tests everyone's sense of honor.
Who is who in Glory of Youth?
Bettina Dolce is the young heroine. Dr. Anthony Blake is the surgeon, Diana Gregory the woman he has loved for years, and Justin Ford the daring flyer. Sophie Martens is Diana's friend, and Captain Stubbs and Miss Matthews bring gentle comedy.
What does the Gray Gull mean in the book?
The Gray Gull is Justin's seaplane, which both flies and floats. It stands for freedom, youth and risk, and it carries Bettina into the sky and into a love she has been afraid to name.
The author
Temple Bailey
1880–1953 · American novelist
Temple Bailey was an American author of warmly romantic popular fiction, a fixture of the magazines and bestseller lists of her day. The Gay Cockade collects her short stories of love, ambition, and second chances.
More by Temple Bailey
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