Thankful Rest

"Thankful Rest" by Annie S. Swan is a novel written during the late 19th century. The story centers around the lives of Joshua Strong and his sister Hepzibah, who live in a quaint homestead named Thankful Rest. When they receive unwelcome news about the death of Hepzibah’s only sister, they find themselves responsible for her sister's orphaned children, a situation that leads to tension as they adjust to their new roles as guardians. At the start of the novel, we are introduced to the character of Hepzibah, who is depicted as a strict and hardworking woman consumed by her domestic duties. When the postman delivers a black-edged letter conveying the news of her sister's death, Hepzibah's stolid demeanor begins to crack, revealing her concerns about the implications for her and Joshua. The children, Tom and Lucy, are mentioned briefly as they cling to each other in mourning, setting the stage for the emotional struggles the family will face as they navigate their changed circumstances. The opening chapters effectively establish the dynamics at Thankful Rest and hint at the challenges that lie ahead for both the Strong siblings and the Hurst children. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Annie Shepherd Swan, CBE was a Scottish journalist and fiction writer. She wrote mainly in her maiden name, but also as David Lyall and later Mrs Burnett Smith. A writer of romantic fiction for women, she had over 200 novels, serials, stories and other fiction published between 1878 and her death. She has been called "one of the most commercially successful popular novelists of the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries". Swan was politically active in the First World War, and as a suffragist, a Liberal activist and founder-member and vice-president of the Scottish National Party.