The Princess Passes

Charles Norris Williamson (1859 - 1920) and Alice Muriel Williamson (1869 - 1933)

An American heiress nicknamed the Manitou Princess (after her daddy's richest silver mine) is devastated to find that her fiancé only loves her money, so she does what anyone might do: she bolts for Europe, dons male attire and sets out on a walking tour of the Alps. Though professing hatred of all men, she soon falls in with a just-jilted English lord, aptly named Monty Lane, who is attempting to walk off a broken heart of his own. The Princess Passes presents the ups and downs of their alpine relationship through the unpenetrating eyes of Lord Lane.

Co-author Alice Livingston, of Poughkeepsie, New York, mentions in her memoirs that she sailed for Europe after a boyfriend tried to shoot her. In London she met literary editor Charles Williamson and began writing for the story magazines of media mogul Lord Northcliffe. At one point she found herself scribbling six serials simultaneously, on the income from which she and Williamson married. She later spun some of her husband's detailed descriptive notes made during their motor-trips abroad into a string of bestselling novels involving automobiling, then a novelty

.

The central romantic action of The Princess Passes recalls comic situations of Shakespeare's cross-dressing heroines and is bookended by automobile-themed sequences as the narrator and friends (hero & heroine of the Williamsons' first novel, The Lightning Conductor) motor south through the magnificent, peaceful mountain passes of pre-World War I Europe. (Summary by Grant Hurlock)

Genre(s): Romance

Language: English

Section Chapter Reader Time
Play 01 Woman Disposes Grant Hurlock
00:20:30
Play 02 Mercedes to the Rescue Grant Hurlock
00:35:30
Play 03 My Lesson Grant Hurlock
00:24:53
Play 04 Pots, Kettles, and Other Things Grant Hurlock
00:25:18
Play 05 In Search of a Mule Grant Hurlock
00:13:49
Play 06 The Wings of the Wind Grant Hurlock
00:33:48
Play 07 At Last! Grant Hurlock
00:18:54
Play 08 The Making of a Mystery Grant Hurlock
00:15:27
Play 09 The Brat Grant Hurlock
00:30:36
Play 10 The Scraping of Acquaintance Grant Hurlock
00:20:52
Play 11 A Shadow of Night Grant Hurlock
00:19:47
Play 12 The Princess Grant Hurlock
00:18:23
Play 13 Afternoon Calls Grant Hurlock
00:27:05
Play 14 The Path of the Moon Grant Hurlock
00:34:10
Play 15 Enter the Contessa Grant Hurlock
00:17:26
Play 16 A Man from the Dark Grant Hurlock
00:32:34
Play 17 A Little Game of Flirtation Grant Hurlock
00:20:05
Play 18 Rank Tyranny Grant Hurlock
00:15:03
Play 19 The Little Rift Within the Lute Grant Hurlock
00:21:16
Play 20 The Great Paolo Grant Hurlock
00:14:50
Play 21 The Challenge Grant Hurlock
00:16:22
Play 22 An American Custom Grant Hurlock
00:09:46
Play 23 There Is No Such Girl Grant Hurlock
00:26:05
Play 24 The Revenge of the Mountain Grant Hurlock
00:41:25
Play 25 The Americans Grant Hurlock
00:23:08
Play 26 The Vanishing of the Prince Grant Hurlock
00:26:02
Play 27 The Strange Mushroom Grant Hurlock
00:22:41
Play 28 The World Without the Boy Grant Hurlock
00:19:29
Play 29 The Fairy Prince's Ring Grant Hurlock
00:19:45
Play 30 The Day of Suspense Grant Hurlock
00:10:13
Play 31 The Boy's Sister Grant Hurlock
00:21:19