The Woman Who Did

When Herminia Barton, Cambridge-educated daughter of a clergyman, walks out of her parents' house and into independent life in London, she carries a dangerous idea: that a woman might chart her own course, love on her own terms, and refuse the institution of marriage entirely. She finds a kindred spirit in Alan Merrick, a progressive lawyer who shares her radical views on women's emancipation. What follows is a proposition that would have made Victorian readers faint: Herminia suggests they live together without the benefit of clergy. Reluctantly, Alan agrees. They flee to Florence, where tragedy strikes - Alan dies of typhoid before their daughter is born. Because no legal ceremony bound them, Herminia inherits nothing. She returns to England penniless, unmarried, and determined to raise her daughter Dolores as proof that women can forge their own destinies. First published in 1895 as part of Lane's series promoting the "New Woman," this novel was engineered to scandalize. It still provokes.