Red Pottage (Virago Modern Classics)

Written in 1899, this novel traces the friendship between Rachel, newly wealthy but unhappily married, and Hester, a successful novelist stuck living with her clergyman brother. From Virago Press: "Demonstrating the need for women's economic and emotional independence, Red Pottage created a scandal on publication with its attack on the pretensions and complacency of the English middle classes."