Possession

How much of herself must a woman surrender before success becomes another form of possession? Ellen Tolliver is a gifted, fiercely independent pianist determined to build a serious artistic career, even as family, marriage and social respectability press competing claims upon her. Her struggle is not simply to perform, but to preserve an identity that others repeatedly seek to define, contain or control.Against the soot-covered mills, rigid gossip and domestic tensions of an unnamed Midwestern industrial town, artistic ambition carries a particular force. The novel sets that confined world against cosmopolitan society, fashionable households and concert venues, tracing the distance between private aspiration and public achievement. As Ellen becomes the celebrated performer Lilli Barr, her chosen public identity opens a compelling divide between the woman and the artist, between independence and the demands created by recognition.Performance here is both vocation and exposure. Ellen’s talent brings her into worlds shaped by class, reputation and social expectation, while family loyalty and marriage complicate the freedom she seeks. Moving through artistic circles in New York and beyond, the narrative examines celebrity without losing sight of the private self behind the name, and success without ignoring its costs. This literary novel gives the pianist protagonist’s ambition a sharply personal context: who may claim her, what she owes, and whether an artist can belong fully to herself. This book was out of print for decades and is now republished by Alpha Editions.It has been restored for today’s and future generations.This edition is not just a reprint - it’s a collector’s item and a cultural treasure.