The Norton Book of Women's Lives

A sharp, engaging work of literary biography, Women’s Lives explores the intimate relationships and inner worlds of five Victorian women writers, revealing how love, ambition, and constraint shaped both their lives and their work.

Phyllis Rose weaves together the stories of Margaret Oliphant, George Eliot, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Harriet Martineau, and Christina Rossetti, offering a nuanced look at how each navigated marriage, independence, and creative identity in a world that rarely made space for all three.