Rachel Ray (Barnes & Noble Digital Library)

Published in 1863, this novel concerns the struggles of a young man to win the woman he loves despite the disapproval of her religious parents. Luke Rowan, heir of one of the founders of the Bungall and Tappitt brewery, visits the brewery with plans of improving the beer—there he falls in love with Rachel Ray, a young woman whose pious older sister, Mrs. Prime, seeks to mold the girl in her own image.