Overview
Ranging from posh Beacon Hill to go-go New York City to stately Virginia, a sweeping coming-of-age story of three women's lives, loves, and ambitions in the 1920s, '30s and '40s
Set in Boston, New York, and Virginia, The Prodigal Women tells the intertwined stories of three young women who come of age in the Roaring Twenties, not flappers and golden girls but flesh-and-blood female protagonists looking wearilyāand warilyāat the paths open to women in a rapidly changing world.
Leda March, āfrantic with self-consciousness and envy and desire,ā is the daughter of poorer relations of a prominent Boston family and an aspiring poet torn between an impulse to conformity and the pursuit of personal freedom. Betsy Jekyll, newly arrived with her family from Virginia, becomes Ledaās closest childhood friend, bringing a beguiling new warmth and openness into the New Englanderās life. But Betsy soon abandons Boston to land a job at a fashion magazine and enjoy life as a single woman in New York before falling in love withāand marryingāan abusive, controlling man. Betsyās older sister, Maizie, a Southern belle idolized by the two younger friends and pursued by numerous men, grows tired of ārunning aroundā and fatefully looks for happiness in marriage to a turbulent artist.
When The Prodigal Women was published in 1942, its uncompromising portrayal of womenās shifting roles, open sexuality, and ambivalence toward motherhood made it a succĆØss de scandale, spending twenty-three weeks on the New York Times Best Sellers list. Now Library of America restores Nancy Haleās lost classic to print with a new introduction by Kate Bolick exploring how the novel measures āthe gap between what liberation looks like, and what it actually is.ā
This book title, The Prodigal Women: A Novel, ISBN: 9781598537499, by Nancy Hale, Kate Bolick, published by Library of America (May 9, 2023) is available in paperback. Our minimum order quantity is 25 copies. All standard bulk book orders ship FREE in the continental USA and delivered in 4-10 business days.
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