An Acquaintance with Darkness

infobox Book |
name = An Acquaintance with Darkness
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption =
author = Ann Rinaldi
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series = Great Episodes
genre = Historical novel
publisher = Harcourt Books
release_date = 1997
media_type = Print (Paperback)
pages = 384 pp
isbn = ISBN 0-15-202197-3
preceded_by = Hang a Thousand Trees with Ribbons
followed_by = Cast Two Shadows

"An Acquaintance with Darkness" is a historical fiction novel by Ann Rinaldi. It is part of the Great Episodes series. It is told in first-person narration.

Plot summary

"An Acquaintance with Darkness" is the story of fourteen-year-old Emily Pigbush, who lives with her failing mother in Washington, D.C., in 1865. Emily's beloved father, who used to call his daughter "Little Miss Muffet," died during the Civil War whilst fighting for the Union. Many slaves have run away in search of freedom during the war. Now the Pigbushes' final slave, Ella May, has run away, leaving Emily to care for her mother — who is an overly dramatic former Southern belle — alone. However, Emily sometimes has the help of her close friend, sixteen-year-old Annie Surratt, whose mother runs the hotel across the street. When Annie's older brother Johnny, who Emily has secretly loved for many years, tells Emily he is leaving, things begin going downhill.

Emily's mother is near death, and Emily hopes to go live with Annie and the Surratts afterwards. Emily's mother's only wish is that Emily at all costs "not" live with her mother's brother, Dr. Valentine Bransby, after her death. For reasons unknown to Emily, her mother has bitterly despised Valentine for years. Soon after Emily's mother dies, right after hearing that the Civil War is over and the Union won. But then, on April 15, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln is assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, an actor, in Ford Theatre. Booth flees the city, and the President bleeds to death from his gunshot wound to the head. Mrs. Mary Surratt comes under suspicion of the authorities, as she may have harbored Booth, a fugitive of Washington; Johnny Surratt is also wanted by the police for possibly being involved in the plan to assassinate the President. On Annie's wise advice, Emily reluctantly goes to live with her uncle, Dr. Valentine Bransby, in his lovely Washington home.

Living with Uncle Valentine, Emily learns that Valentine is actually quite a talented doctor who strives for more discoveries in the medical field with the changing times. Emily meets young Marietta, Valentine's pretty assistant who loves to grow unusual plants, such as the moonflower. Marietta strikes up a sometimes-uneasy friendship with Emily. Valentine's housekeeper, Maude, is also very kind to Emily, as is Maude's dwarf husband, Merry. Valentine also has strange henchmen named the Spoon and the Mole who are also dwarves. Robert deGraaf,a handsome young Union soldier who was injured in the war, is employed by Valentine as a medical student. Emily and Robert begin an unsure romantic relationship. As Emily later figures out, Valentine, Marietta, Robert, Maude, the Mole, and the Spoon are all actually robbing graves in Washington cemeteries.

Emily is at first disgusted by the apparent treachery of Valentine's deeds, and she nearly betrays them all to the authorities but after helping obtain an illegal body for her uncle for medical purposes, Emily sees the error of her ways. Mrs. Surratt is publicly executed by hanging, and Valentine, Robert, Annie, and Emily attend the execution. At the end, Emily tells Robert that she would like to become a nurse one day and he replies that she can not only become a nurse, but a doctor instead.