The Sheltered Life by Ellen Glasgow

The Sheltered Life’ stands as one of the most stirring epitaphs to the romantic South in American literature. In the town of Queenborough, Virginia, the Archbalds and the Birdsongs, the two remaining families on Washington Street, hold their ground and attempt to ignore the industrial invasion in the years before the first World War. Told from two perspectives – the wise outlook of elderly General Archbald, a civilized man in an uncivilized world, and the romantic vantage point of Jenny Blair, his impetuous grandchild – the story is a vivid parable of a society in decline.