The Half Sisters (Oxford World's Classics)

This radical novel contrasts the lives of two women in Victorian England. The illegitimate Bianca contends with poverty and prejudice to attain eminence and respectability as an actress. Her legitimate half sister, Alice, finds herself unhappily married, trapped in the dreary and philistine existence endured by numerous middle-class wives of her time. Each has to confront the implications of passion in a woman's life, with surprising results that challenged contemporary orthodoxy. Now back in print for the first time in over a century, this poignant work addresses the damaging effects of conventional Victorian beliefs about women.