Gwendolyn Ranger Wormser was a Victorian writer best known for her weird psychological horror stories.

'The Effigy' is the story of Genevieve Evans, a young woman in an unhappy marriage who is dominated by her unscrupulous, controlling father and belittled by her uncaring husband. Her frustration and rage, particularly at her father, whose portrait hangs over the fireplace, are extreme. But then Genevieve discovers a very strange thing about the portrait...and at once she finds she has a wicked, dangerous power at her fingertips with which she can take her terrible revenge.