Mrs. Craddock

A passionate woman finds herself trapped in a marriage of convenience to a man decades older than her, and the consequences prove devastating. Set in the rolling countryside of Edwardian England, this novel follows the beautiful and restless Mrs. Craddock as she chafes against the hollow symmetries of her life, the tedious dinners, the idle social rounds, the husband who adores her but cannot understand her. When a young and handsome neighbor awakens something feral in her, she faces a choice that society will not forgive. Written when Maugham was only twenty-seven, this debut novel pulses with youthful fury and psychological acuity, tracing one woman's insurrection against the gilded cage of marriage. It is a tale of desire devouring itself, of respectability as a kind of death, and of how quickly a woman can lose everything when she dares to want.