Point of View

The novel is written in a diary format, therefore the point of view is first person. The novel has excerpts from two different diaries, so there are two voices to narrate the plot. The first is Selina Dawes, a young trance medium whom the reader later learns has been incarcerated for fraud and assault. The second is Miss Prior, a young upper class woman who has suffered from depression since her father's death and has begun visiting inmates at Millbank Prison to help ease her own troubles. This causes Miss Prior to meet Selina Dawes and become intimately involved in her life.

The point of view of this novel is tightly woven into the format of the novel. The novel is told in a diary format, therefore everything the reader learns in the development of the plot comes from dated diary entries. This limits the knowledge...