Ann Veronica

Set in Edwardian England, the novel follows Ann Veronica Stanley, a bright, restless twenty-one-year-old biology student whose desire for independence collides with the rigid expectations of her suburban world.

Ann Veronica lives with her father, Peter Stanley, a solicitor of fifty-three, and his sister, Aunt Molly, in the London suburb of Morningside Park. Her mother died when she was thirteen, and her father divides women into the purely good and the purely wicked, leaving no room for a daughter who wants to think and act for herself. He has refused to let her study at the Imperial College under the distinguished biologist Russell, insisting she remain at the inferior Tredgold Women's College. When he forbids her from attending a fancy dress dance with the free-spirited Widgett family next door, communicating his prohibition by letter rather than face-to-face, Ann Veronica confronts him. Their argument ends in a bitter impasse: She insists on her right to autonomy; he demands absolute obedience.

Ann Veronica gathers other perspectives. Her friend Hetty Widgett observes that women are kept in suspension between childhood and marriage, with no plan for what to do with them in the meantime. Teddy Widgett, a young man who admires Ann Veronica, proposes a purely formal marriage to free her from parental control, but she declines. Mr. Manning, a civil servant of thirty-seven with a taste for sentimental verse, corners her at a neighborhood tea with an elaborate vision of women as sacred, sheltered beings. On the morning of the dance, Manning's seven-page marriage proposal arrives. Ann Veronica concludes she does not love him and intends to attend the dance as a declaration of independence. During a walk she encounters Ramage, a financial newspaper proprietor who lives nearby, and is charmed by his worldly offers of friendship. That evening, when she descends the stairs in her pirate-themed costume, her father intercepts her at the front door. They physically struggle over the latch, injuring her hand. She flees upstairs and resolves to leave home.

With Teddy's help, Ann Veronica smuggles her luggage out and catches a train to London with little more than three pounds. Her exhilaration at crossing Waterloo Bridge gives way to harsher realities: She is accosted and followed by strange men and encounters evidence of prostitution, forcing her to confront the dangers facing unprotected women. She finds a room near the Hampstead Road, sends her father a telegram, and writes to Manning declining his proposal. Her family arrives in succession to demand her return. Her father threatens to cut off all support; her brother Roddy advises bluntly that a girl's only real economic option is to find a man. Manning reiterates his chivalric worship. Ann Veronica refuses every appeal.

Running low on money, Ann Veronica visits Ramage at his City office. He advises her to continue her education and offers to lend her forty pounds. She initially refuses but later accepts. In January she enrolls in the Advanced Course in Comparative Anatomy at the Imperial College, studying under Professor Russell and his demonstrator, Capes, an exceptionally fair man of about thirty-two with a gift for vivid teaching. Capes shows particular interest in Ann Veronica's intellect. Meanwhile, Miss Miniver, the fervent suffragist she met through the Widgetts, draws her into a circle of reformers and progressive activists. While sympathetic to the broad impulse for change, Ann Veronica is troubled by the gap between the ideals and their advocates. Extended conversations with Capes about beauty and evolutionary theory draw them closer, and she realizes she is in love with him.

Ramage's attentions grow dangerous. After taking Ann Veronica to a performance of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde and declaring his love, he lures her the following evening to a private dining room, locks the door, and seizes her. She fights him off physically. He reveals his true view: The loan created an obligation, and she is a "swindler" who takes without giving a return. She vows to repay every penny and escapes, deeply shaken. She sends Ramage twenty pounds from her savings. Shortly afterward, a fellow student reveals that Capes is married and separated, his wife refusing to grant a divorce. When Ramage returns her twenty pounds by post, Ann Veronica flings both letter and money into the fire in a fury, destroying them.

Her frustrations converge. She joins the suffragette cause, volunteers for a raid on Parliament, and is arrested. She elects a month in Canongate Prison rather than pay a forty-pound bond. In prison she undergoes profound self-examination, concluding that violence is counterproductive, that her rebellion has been driven by egotism, and that an unprotected girl cannot simply walk into the world and demand freedom. She writes her father asking to return home.

Released, Ann Veronica reaches a tentative peace with her father, who allows her to continue at the Imperial College. She cannot bring herself to mention the Ramage debt, leaving her still owing twenty-five pounds she cannot repay. Driven by her philosophy of compromise, she becomes engaged to Manning, warning him plainly that she does not love him. When Capes sees the sapphire ring, his surprise is evident. Two weeks later, after watching Ann Veronica leave the laboratory with Manning, Capes hurls specimens against the wall, crying, "The fool I have been!" Ann Veronica tries to confess the Ramage debt to Manning but finds his idealized worldview makes honest conversation impossible. Sitting with him in Regent's Park, she is overwhelmed by the recognition that she loves Capes absolutely and cannot marry anyone else. She breaks the engagement.

Days later, Ann Veronica tells Capes she has fallen in love with him. Walking toward Waterloo, he confesses he loves her too but explains his past: an early marriage, an affair, and a divorce scandal in which he was cited as the guilty party, resulting in a permanent separation from his own wife, who will never grant him his freedom. He presents himself as "damaged goods." Ann Veronica declares she does not care; his past makes him more real and human. Over the following days, they decide to leave together at the end of the academic session and live as partners until they can marry, accepting the costs of social isolation, scandal, and financial hardship. Capes resolves to give up biology and turn to writing.

During her last days at home, Ann Veronica takes her exam and says quiet goodbyes to her childhood. On her final evening she sits with her aunt playing Patience. The next day, she and Capes cross to France and travel to the Swiss Alps, settling at the inn by the icy blue lake at Blau See. In long conversations during hikes and boat rides, they discuss the conflict between morality and adventure. Capes acknowledges they are conventionally "in the wrong," but Ann Veronica feels "absolutely right." During a mountain crossing, she remembers the forty pounds she still owes Ramage and asks Capes to lend it to her, resolving the debt at last. On a high rock above the glacier, they talk about having children and their future together.

About four years later, Mr. and Mrs. Capes host a dinner for Ann Veronica's father and aunt in their London flat. Capes has become a successful playwright under the pen name Thomas More, and Ann Veronica is expecting a child. The evening proceeds with elaborate politeness and slight awkwardness. Afterward, Ann Veronica weeps by the fire, mourning the loss of the passionate intensity of their early days. She grieves that the adventure has yielded to furniture, success, and discretion. But she rallies, insisting they must never forget the mountains, the time when they risked everything. "We are not the sort that goes under," she declares. "We're hard stuff!"