First the Blade

Clemence Dane's First the Blade is a witty, intimate postwar novel about growth as a slow, private, and often painful process. Through a playful narrator and a sharply observed emotional world, the book follows Laura Valentine and Justin Cloud, two people who seem suited in temperament yet may be divided by the one difference that matters most: Laura is already awakening to herself, while Justin remains curiously unchanged, serious, and self-contained. Laura's story begins in an enchanted childhood shaped by a beautiful, unconventional mother, then darkens into loss when illness sends her away and leaves her to endure a grief that is never honestly named. Lonely, defiant, and homesick, she survives in an aunt's rigid household until her quiet Gran'papa offers the first true companionship she has known. As Laura grows, the novel traces her fierce emotional life, her yearning for belonging, and the transforming force of first love. Justin's proposal, and even the missing engagement ring, expose the comedy and tension of their relationship, as Laura wrestles with what love means and how much of it must be freely chosen. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.