This novel’s turn-of-the-century impoverished but upwardly mobile White Southern (US) characters marks a daring departure for Hurston, famous for her complex accounts of Black culture and heritage. Full of insights into the nature of love, attraction, faith, and loyalty, Seraph on the Suwanee is the compelling story of people at once deeply in love and deeply at odds. The heroine, young Arvay Henson, is convinced she will never find true love and happiness, and defends herself from unwanted suitors by throwing hysterical fits and professing religious fervor. Arvay meets her match, however, in handsome Jim Meserve, a bright, enterprising young man who knows that Arvay is the woman for him, and refuses to allow her to convince him otherwise. Hurston explores the evolution of a marriage full of love but very little communication and the desires of a White woman In search of herself and her place in the world.