First published in 1909, it focuses on feminist issues from the point of view of a young woman entering adulthood and enduring prejudice about her place in the world. And this novel, Ann Veronica, tells the story of a middle class young woman who is fed up of being expected to be purely decorative.
Her father and her boyfriends really are incapable of understanding why she should want to study science, or control her own life in any way. One Wednesday, Ann Veronica Stanley came down from London in a state of solemn excitement and quite resolved to have things out with her father that very evening.
She has to fend off unwelcome advances from men who want to enslave her, and evade a different sort of imprisonment from an over-protective family. Ann Veronica herself strikes out, makes men friends, joins militant suffragette action...
Its also a fascinating novel for what it says about the times, and its insights into contemporary social and scientific thought.
