This is the tale of a well known literary passion told from the aspect of the wronged woman. I felt by turn sympathy, exasperation and rage. Slow moving but nonetheless compulsive reading.
... to be closed and artful is the only way for a girl to preserve herself and her reputation. You cannot succeed at both. And they are ready to accuse us on any grounds. We are expected to be constant when they are not ....
They expect us to know what we want but never to ask for it. They expect us to be hot and yet to shrink back as if we do not know what heat is. To have the wit of admiring their minds but not have a contrary word to give back. To be modest in our dress and yet calculate display. To care nothing for tin and yet arrange it so that our children will rise in the world ....
