In her novel Good-bye, Sweetheart! (1872), Rhoda Broughton categorizes two kinds of fiction: novels proper and novels improper, "novels that are milk for babes and novels that are almost too strong meat for men." The public considered hers to be of the latter kind, and lapped them up. Yet Rhoda Broughton may justly be rated considerably higher than as a writer of torrid love stories, chiefly for her insights into female psychology and for her contribution to the history of English manners.

The youngest of three daughters, Miss Broughton was born on 29 November 1840 at Segryd Hall, near Denbigh, Wales. Her grandfather was Sir Henry Delves Broughton; her father, a clergyman, held the living of Broughton, Staffordshire, where Rhoda grew up at the rectory. She was educated at home by her father, whose learning inspired her love of literature. With the aid of her uncle, Sheridan Le Fanu, she published...