Chapter 1, The Events Leading up to the Tragedy 1893-1903 Summary and Analysis

Dorothy Rothschild is born into upper-class Jewish affluence to Henry and Eliza Rothschild on August 22, 1893. The first chapter begins with the chronicles of her childhood in New Jersey and New York, with her siblings, Harold, Bertram and Helen, aged 12, 9 and 6, respectively, at the time of her birth.

Dorothy's paternal grandparents, Samson and Mary Rothschild, come from Prussia, immigrating after the 1848 revolution. They settle in small town Selma, Alabama where they sell upscale and fancy wares to the townsfolk and produce a troupe of offspring. They are Henry, Jacob, Simon, Samuel, Hannah, and Martin. Dorothy would, in her life and times, refer to these relations as the "folk of mud and flame" (pg. 5) and they are greatly credited towards her disposition for speedy repartee later in...