Two Women Or One? From The Mss. Of Dr. Leonard Benary

Two Women or One? by Henry Harland is a psychological novel that explores themes of identity and redemption. The story follows Dr. Leonard Benary, a retired physician, who encounters a desperate young woman, Louise Massarte, on a stormy night near a river. Fearing she intends to end her life, Benary intervenes, and the two engage in a tense conversation that reveals Louise's tragic past. She is a convicted criminal who has escaped from prison and is contemplating suicide. Despite her cold demeanor and belief that she is beyond help, Benary insists on offering her assistance, and they agree to spend an hour together. As they talk, Louise's story unravels, exposing the depths of her despair and guilt. The novel delves into the complexities of self-perception, the possibility of personal transformation, and the moral question of whether one person can redeem another. Through Louise's struggle and Benary's persistence, the story examines the potential for rebirth and the weight of one's past.

Henry Harland was an American novelist and editor. Harland was born in Norwich, Connecticut, in 1861 as the son of Fourierist Thomas Harland, a former roommate of editor and novelist Edmund Clarence Stedman. He grew up in New York, and after the Civil War, the Harlands lived in the city's German Jewish neighborhood. Harland went to City College of New York then briefly Harvard Divinity School. In May 1884, he married Aline Herminie Merriam, a fellow artist. His literary career is divided into two sections. During the first, he wrote a series of exciting novels under the pseudonym Sidney Luska, paying little attention to literary merit. His writings created under this name in the 1880s were the first widely read books about the American Jewish experience, which Harland both applauded and condemned. Harland's depictions were heavily criticized by the Jewish community. One review in the Philadelphia-based Jewish Exponent said one of his writings was "grossly inartistic" and displayed "condescension" and "vulgar assumption toward Jews." In The Menorah, Kaufmann Kohler claimed that in Harland's novels, "the Jews, as a class, lack refinement".