I read this book when I was 18 and I remember some of the themes sticking with me, when I saw that it was offered for a daily reading on dailylit I subscribed to get daily e-mails with excerpts. Unfortunately (or not) dailylit lets you get the next installment immediately after reading the one e-mailed to you, so I finished the 65 parts of the book in three days.
The wife and mother of this book, a young woman of 28 decides to begin living her life without people telling her what to do. This is a good book about a woman coming to a spiritual awakening. It was written and published in an era of American history where women did not have the rights they do now. They wrote under nom de plume's and their sole role was a mother and wife. This book sought to break the mold for women, to show a woman choosing to shed what was conventional, and pursue her heart. I hope later to read up on the contextual history of that time and how it relates to her novel.
A quote I particularly liked: She thought of Leonce and the children. They were a part of her life. But they need not have thought that they could possess her, body and soul.
I love that quote because so often women are expected, even today, to give themselves completely, and often they are left broken and desolate as though they themselves are not true people. I know someone whose mother abandoned them much like this mother did, and that mother had a similar husband and similar circumstances in this day and age... her story is fictional but what she says in some ways still rings true for some people in some societies, today.
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