Success

Success is a compelling Edwardian novel by Una L. Silberrad, first published in 1912 by George H. Doran Company. Set against the backdrop of England's industrial elite, it tells the story of Michael Annarly, a gifted engineer and inventor whose revolutionary aerial-torpedo design places him at the center of a fierce corporate power struggle - one he is woefully unprepared to survive.

When Annarly unveils his masterwork to the admiring Lady Sibyl Carson at a lavish country-house gathering, his triumph seems assured. But success has enemies. Within hours, the ruthless firm of Galhardy's - represented by the hostile secretary Brett and the calculating Sir James Shannon - moves against him. Accused of conducting unauthorized foreign negotiations, Annarly is suspended, his papers seized, and his future placed in the hands of men who want his invention without its creator.

Into this crisis steps Nan Barmister, a sharp-eyed antique dealer from Soho whose calm intelligence and practical kindness offer Annarly his only foothold. As he fights to reclaim ownership of his work and his name, the novel asks a quietly devastating question: in a world where ambition and commerce collide, what does it truly mean to succeed?

Silberrad wrote a completely unique book about a man who is a scientist and inventor, with vivid characters the reader rarely encounters in fiction of this era. Critics praised her for the "extraordinary way in which the plot very gradually and quietly gains grip," and for characters who "move as they lived" - flesh and blood observed from life.