Mary Roberts Rinehart 
Bab: A Sub-Deb 

Bab, only twenty months younger than her sister, the official debutante, rebels against her treatment by her family. Set during the pre-World War I era, when women’s roles were rapidly changing, Bab determines to assert her independence through this series of misadventures and mysteries. . . . 

‘I am writing all of this as truthfully as I can. I am not defending myself. What I did I was driven to, as any one can see. It takes a real shock to make the average Familey wake up to the fact that the youngest daughter is not the Familey baby at seventeen. All I was doing was furnishing the shock. If things turned out badly, as they did, it was because I rather overdid the thing. That is all. My motives were perfectly ireproachible.’ – Bab 

And this Bab feels through all of her hilarious and at times dangerous adventures to prove she is not just a Sub-Deb. Written by that master of mystery and humor, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Bab is a delightful combination of both. 

This story was one of Rinehart’s earlier works. The main character Bab, tells of her adventures through her diary and ‘magazine articles’. One thing to know about Bab is that she is a terrible speller and it shows in her writing.