Usually when I review a book from previous centuries, I have to preface it with warnings about the bits that are dated, weird, or offensive to modern sensibilities. No such preamble is needed here.

The book is a bit prescient in that it presents that unfolding of a romance between two people who first meet as operators over a telegraph wire. Maybe that's dated again because now when people meet online they often do know what each looks like. Still, the story, including the fascination of the unknown others, seemed to speak to experiences I've had with online friendships and would-be romances.

The structure of the story is the classic comedy-romance with multiple couples, mistaken intentions, mistaken identity, interfering others, and a happy ending. If you've read, for example, PG Wodehouse, the plot structure will feel familiar. I don't mean this to say it's boring, but rather that the structure (unlike in many older books) is pretty accessible to a modern reader.

The last important thing worth mentioning is the main character, Nattie. Nattie works as a telegraph operator, lives on her own in a rented apartment, is not particularly pretty, and has aspirations to be a writer. Most of the story is from a close 3rd person view of Nattie, and Nattie is an excellent character. The narrator, speaking from Nattie's close view, has some sharp things to say about women's limitations in society in some places, and Nattie's very existence as a working and ambitious woman are a statement about women's changing place in society.

Read this book for its delightful story line, its prescience about online friendships, its view into Victorian society, and its progressive view of women's role in society.