This image is the cover for the book The Turnstile, Classics To Go

The Turnstile, Classics To Go

The Turnstile is a 1912 political novel by the English author A. E. W. Mason. Cynthia Daventry, the heroine of the story, grows up in Argentina as the adopted daughter of Robert and Jane Daventry, an English couple. Unable to have children themselves, they had adopted Cynthia at the age of three from a foundling hospital where she had been left by her dissolute father, James Glanville, following her mother's death in an earthquake. Cynthia is unaware of her parentage, and is horrified when on her 17th birthday her natural father arrives unannounced to claim her, intending to force her into prostitution in Buenos Aires and live off the proceeds. The Daventrys flee back to England, where they live comfortably although Cynthia never shakes off her deep-rooted fears.

A. E. W. Mason

Alfred Edward Woodley Mason (7 May 1865 – 22 November 1948) was an English author and politician. He is best remembered for his 1902 novel of courage and cowardice in wartime, The Four Feathers and is also known as the creator of Inspector Hanaud, a French detective who was an early template for Agatha Christie's famous Hercule Poirot. His prolific output in short stories and novels were frequently made and remade into films during his lifetime; though many of the silent versions have been lost or forgotten, the productions of Fire Over England (1937) and The Four Feathers (1939) remain enduring classics of British cinema.

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