{"product_id":"the-victim-and-the-worm-by-phyllis-bottome-hardcover","title":"The Victim and The Worm, by Phyllis Bottome (Hardcover)","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn aging American inventor, settled in the English countryside after the Great War, watches over his fragile younger daughter while keeping his estranged elder daughter-a princess trapped in a ruinous marriage-at arm's length. When a steady, one-armed veteran asks for the younger woman's hand, the old man's carefully maintained peace begins to crack, and buried grievances between father and daughters surface with devastating force.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the companion novella, a very different household comes under scrutiny. A timid, self-effacing woman endures years of quiet domination by those around her, bending to every demand until the cumulative weight of small surrenders threatens to crush what little selfhood she has left. As pressure mounts from family and circumstance alike, she must decide whether the habit of submission is a shelter-or a slow destruction.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTogether these two novellas form a sharp-eyed study of power, weakness, and the hidden violence of family loyalty, written with the psychological acuity that would later make their author one of the most acclaimed British novelists of the twentieth century.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Wildside Press LLC","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43184464986321,"sku":"9781667666204","price":29.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/startlingstories.us\/products\/the-victim-and-the-worm-by-phyllis-bottome-hardcover","provider":"Startling Stories","version":"1.0","type":"link"}