The Threatening Eye

This is a late nineteenth-century novel that begins in London, Brixton to be exact. The center of attention is house no 22 in a very respectable street, occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Grimm and their 16-year-old daughter. Mr. Grimm is a lawyer and commissioner for oaths, while Mrs. Grimm (his second wife) does not work but enthusiastically oversees the work of the maid. All is not well in the Grimm house: Mr. Grimm is cruel and mean and shows no love or affection for his daughter; Mrs. Grimm, the stepmother to the child Mary, is also mean and cruel. What will become of poor Mary?