Just Around the Corner

Just Around the Corner is a lively, socially observant romance collection by Fannie Hurst, billed as "romance en casserole" and shaped from connected stories that mix wit, tenderness, and sharp-eyed comedy. Across beauty parlors, backstage dressing rooms, and sweltering New York apartments, Hurst captures the pressures of modern urban life with playful titles and a warm but unsparing eye for love, ambition, domestic strain, and human folly. The stories move from flirtation and emotional confession to theatrical spectacle and private heartbreak, revealing how glamour and ordinary labor often depend on the same exhausting effort. At the center are women like Miss Gertrude Sprunt, caught between two very different suitors during a long day at the beauty parlor, and Della Delaney, a dazzling Broadway star whose triumph onstage gives way to fatigue, family loss, and the hidden cost of fame. In another tale, Lilly faces the widening gulf between marriage and freedom as her husband's easy optimism collides with her despair. Throughout, Hurst blends romance, satire, and emotional depth into a spirited portrait of early-20th-century life. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.