Cecil Dreeme

The author of this gothic tale was one of the first Union soldiers to lose his life in the Civil War. His semi-autobiographical novel focuses on a young traveler, Robert Byng, who, returning to New York from many years abroad, occupies an absent friend’s flat. With the assistance of an old mentor, he saves the life of a reclusive painter on the floor above him. A close friendship ensues. Byng courts Emma Denman, a beautiful heiress whose intellectual sister has disappeared, presumed drowned. His mentor, who admired the lost woman and believes her to be still alive, travels to Europe to seek her. Meanwhile, Byng fraternizes with one of the other passengers on the ship on which he arrived, an accomplished older man, named Densdeth, of questionable character. The relationships among all of these individuals constitute a mystery whose solution becomes increasingly imperative. (Summary by Thomas A. Copeland)