CENTENNIAL SUMMER

A second novel, and definite advance (the first was Pug, a prize winning novel, but of definitely limited appeal). A satisfactory portrait of a Philadelphia family in the year of the Centennial (1876). The Rogers consist of Jesse, boisterous railroading Quaker; Gussie, his wife, an excitable, tantrum-throwing Italian; Zenie, the oldest daughter, beautiful and selfish; Julie, the reserved one; the twins, Henry and Georgiana, keyed to a high degree of excitement; and the servants who suffer the repercussions of the storms that rock the family. Family celebrations, the period's political and social questions, a trip to New York to meet Zena, wealthy European aunt, the opening of the Centennial with its attendant glamor, Zenie and Julia vying for the favors of attractive Philippe, and internal combustions, major and minor -- an affectionate, robust likeness of a period symbolized by one family.