{"product_id":"the-prodigal-women-a-novel-9781598537499","title":"The Prodigal Women: A Novel","description":"\u003cb\u003eRediscover the sensational 1942 bestseller that unveiled the Jazz Age as women lived it \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAs seen in THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW and VANITY FAIR \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eSet in Boston, New York, and Virginia, \u003ci\u003eThe Prodigal Women\u003c\/i\u003e tells the intertwined stories of three young women who come of age in the Roaring Twenties, not flappers and golden girls but flesh-and-blood female protagonists looking wearily--and warily--at the paths open to women in a rapidly changing world. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eLeda March, \"frantic with self-consciousness and envy and desire,\" is the daughter of poorer relations of a prominent Boston family and an aspiring poet torn between an impulse to conformity and the pursuit of personal freedom. Betsy Jekyll, newly arrived with her family from Virginia, becomes Leda's closest childhood friend, bringing a beguiling new warmth and openness into the New Englander's life. But Betsy soon abandons Boston to land a job at a fashion magazine and enjoy life as a single woman in New York before falling in love with--and marrying--an abusive, controlling man. Betsy's older sister, Maizie, a Southern belle idolized by the two younger friends and pursued by numerous men, grows tired of \"running around\" and fatefully looks for happiness in marriage to a turbulent artist. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhen \u003ci\u003eThe Prodigal Women\u003c\/i\u003e was published in 1942, its uncompromising portrayal of women's shifting roles, open sexuality, and ambivalence toward motherhood made it a \u003ci\u003esuccèss de scandale\u003c\/i\u003e, spending twenty-three weeks on the New York Times Best Sellers list. Now Library of America restores Nancy Hale's lost classic to print with a new introduction by Kate Bolick exploring how the novel measures \"the gap between what liberation looks like, and what it actually is.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eNancy Hale\u003c\/b\u003e (1908-1988) was born in Boston to a distinguished New England family whose forbearers include Revolutionary War hero Nathan Hale and Harriet Beecher Stowe. She was the author of eight novels, including the bestselling \u003ci\u003eThe Prodigal Women\u003c\/i\u003e, four short story collections, two memoirs, two plays, children's stories, and a biography on Mary Cassatt. The winner of ten O. Henry Awards, Hale published over two hundred stories and essays, eighty of which appeared in \u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e, making her one of the most important contributors in the history of the magazine. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eKate Bolick\u003c\/b\u003e is the author of \u003ci\u003eSpinster: Making a Life of One's Own\u003c\/i\u003e and co-author of \u003ci\u003eMarch Sisters: On Life, Death, and Little Women\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Library of America","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50554569654546,"sku":"9781598537499","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_bb040b14-dc3c-4ce7-be5d-3d2d34ad9051.jpg?v=1731720493","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-prodigal-women-a-novel-9781598537499","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}