Adelicia

ADELICIA Grace, Grit and Gumption unfolds in five parts, beginning in the Nashville of 1838, and continuing through the Nashville of 1867. It is set primarily in Tennessee and Louisiana, with brief interludes in Paris and Italy. Adelicia is not a fictional character, but a woman who steps into the 19th century's male dominated world and becomes the dominator. The character driven novel follows the fortunes of Adelicia Hayes Franklin Acklen, who subsequently becomes Nashville's most famous and enigmatic personality of the 19th century. A woman of culture and breeding and great determination, finds her quest a noble one, a conviction that throughout her life allows her grasp to remain unwavering for what is beyond. However, her heart remains in conflict with itself: does she bow to the dictates of society, or reach for the unobtainable against society's dictates and reap the consequences? By her mid-thirties, Adelicia has been tagged "worldly," by Nashville's society whose acceptance and approval she seeks. When asked about her extravagance, she replies, "My dear, extravagance is when one cannot afford it. I have never been extravagant." Adelicia is a clever and brilliant heroine, whose powerful and willful spirit leads her through both triumphant and sorrow, through perils and conflict, yet leaves her with the drive to meet the unexpected with force and the will to endure and overcome. Against all odds, all obstacles, she breaks with tradition, accomplishing what she sets out to do. And although her encounters with grief, disfavor and adversity are of the deepest kind, she never surrenders to what fate tosses her way, nor allows herself to become its victim.