{"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\u003eRanging from posh Beacon Hill to go-go New York City to stately Virginia, a sweeping coming-of-age story of three women's lives, loves, and ambitions in the 1920s, '30s and '40s \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\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Library of America\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 05\/09\/2023\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781598537499\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 875\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.81lbs","brand":"Nancy Hale","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42769752129717,"sku":"9781598537499","price":21.21,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/products\/img_8b3f557f-c8e8-4d79-8ec5-2f08a3cb8b7f.jpg?v=1678836793","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/the-prodigal-women-a-novel-9781598537499","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}