Pursuit of Happiness

About the Book

It is 1873, and twenty-three-year-old Gretchen Haager is a victim of the formidable Frau Sandenberg, who is applying medieval rules for the servants working in her household at the Gluckmutter Villa. When Georg Shillenberg delivers coal to the villa, he witnesses her plight, feels a strong compassion for her, and helps her escape to her family’s farm.

When Frau Sandenberg discovers that Georg is a deserter from Bismarck’s army, she notifies an army officer of his whereabouts, and her vindictiveness only increases once she realizes that Gretchen is gone as well. Meanwhile, Georg and Gretchen fall in love and attempt to start a new life together, in spite of the fact that Georg must remain in hiding. But Frau Sandenberg continues to push the authorities to hunt the fugitive, to the point of accusing him of murder. Now only time will tell whether the young family can escape police pursuit and get themselves safely away to the distant shore of another land.

Set in nineteenth-century Germany, this historical novel tells the tale of a young, beleaguered servant and an army deserter who fall in love despite the difficulties they face.

About the Author

Neill Florence is a former high school principal and English teacher in Queensland. Now retired, he has written several novels and short story collections. He is also the author of six one-act plays that have been staged by the Yeppoon Little Theatre. Pursuit of Happiness is his second published novel; it grew from a set of letters written from Germany to family in Australia in the second half of the nineteenth century.