The Contrast

Maria sings of a warrior who faces the flames without a cry: “the son of Alknomook will never complain.” But the courage she admires only sharpens her own distress: she is promised to a man her heart despises.

In Royall Tyler’s 1787 American comedy, a family’s marriage plans expose a clash between money, fashion, and principle. Maria’s father counts a wealthy match as a triumph; she fears a lifetime tied to a polished man whose heart is anything but honorable. Bound by filial duty, she struggles to speak against her father’s choice without betraying the respect she feels for him. Can Maria make duty and inclination go hand in hand—or will her father’s “main chance” decide her future?

With centuries of literature, it's inevitable that some will fall through the cracks. We hunt down public domain works and restore them so they're not lost to the world.

Who are we? We're Cairn Press. Our background is in design, publishing, typography, and technology. These skills fuel our mission to create the highest quality Public Domain eBooks available online, at an affordable price. We give them the treatment they deserve; our proprietary process restores books for a better overall user experience in design, readability, and e-reader compatibility.