A glance at the titles of Charlotte Bury's novels gives one some indication of their content. Self-Indulgence (1812), Conduct is Fate (1822), The Disinherited (1834), The Ensnared (1834), The Devoted (1836), The Divorced (1837), The History of a Flirt (1840), all suggest indictment of the women described within their covers. Bury wrote at least seventeen such novels, none of which is in print today, but in the early nineteenth century her books were widely read in the United States as well as in England. Bury's novels include perceptive descriptions of what it meant to be a woman in her time--emotionally, economically, and physically--offering a glimpse at nineteenth-century British nobility through the eyes of one of its members. While appealing to her readership's fascination with the titled upper class, Bury described with conviction and accuracy the experiences and concerns of women. The characters in her novels are far removed from the relentless misery of the poor...