A gothic historical novel about a Yankee governess who goes to work on a decaying plantation during the early Reconstruction period. 1947. Continue reading →
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Tag Archives: female protagonist
Lucy Carmichael – Margaret Kennedy
A novel about a young woman who, after being jilted at the altar, goes to work at an art institute in a Lincolnshire industrial town, where she meets an eclectic group of people and begins to build a new life for herself. 1951. Continue reading→
The Midwife – Gay Courter
A historical novel about a young Jewish midwife in turn-of-the-century Russia and New York. 1981. Continue reading →
A Fair Barbarian – Frances Hodgson Burnett
A novel about a young American woman who comes to visit her aunt in England, and the effect her unrefined candor has on the conservative inhabitants of the town. 1880. Continue reading →
The River Witch – Marjorie McIntyre
A novel about a head-strong young woman and her life and trials on the Missouri River in the mid-19th century. 1955. Continue reading →
Katherine Wentworth – D. E. Stevenson
A novel about a young widow who struggles to raise her three children wisely, in the face of financial limitations, family interference, and her own possible needs for happiness. 1964. Continue reading →
Wish Her Safe at Home – Stephen Benatar
First published in 1984; reissued by the NYRB in 2010
A novel about a middle-aged woman who inherits a house and is thrilled by the prospect of a new life, but somehow lets her enthusiasm carry her a bit too far. 1984. Continue reading →
The Blue Sapphire – D. E. Stevenson
A novel about a young woman who is all set to marry the man her family wishes her to marry, when a chance encounter helps nudge her toward a more independently-minded lifestyle. 1963. Continue reading →
The Third Miss Symons – F. M. Mayor
A novella about a woman who is neither charming nor beautiful, whose temper alienates her from her large Victorian family, and who watches as her life passes her by. 1913. Continue reading →
Cluny Brown – Margery Sharp
A novel about a young woman in WWII-era Britain who is deemed not to know her place in life, so her uncle/guardian sends her off to be a housemaid at a country estate. 1944. Continue reading →
