{"product_id":"a-very-great-profession","title":"A Very Great Profession","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"std\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"width: 291px;\" data-mce-style=\"width: 291px;\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/7642\/5795\/files\/78_A_Very_Great_Profession.jpg?v=1593110559\" data-mce-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/7642\/5795\/files\/78_A_Very_Great_Profession.jpg?v=1593110559\u0026amp;width=700\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"wp-caption-text\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e408pp \u003cbr\u003eISBN 9781903155684\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eWritten by Nicola Beauman, the founder of Persephone Books, and first published in 1983, we hope that readers will enjoy a book \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eabout\u003c\/em\u003e the kind of books that Persephone reprints. \u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eA Very Great Profession \u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003eanalyses the work of a number of women writers to present a portrait, though their fiction, of middle-class Englishwomen in the period between the wars, along the way illuminating themes such as domestic life, romantic love, sex, psychoanalysis, the Great War and ‘surplus’ women.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e'\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eA\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cem\u003e Very Great Profession\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003e \u003c\/em\u003ewas conceived when I first saw the film of \u003cem\u003eBrief Encounter\u003c\/em\u003e on television' (the book begins). 'In it the heroine, Laura Jesson, goes into the local town every week to do a bit of shopping, have a cafe lunch, go to the cinema and change her library book. This is the highlight of her week. It was the glimpse of her newly-borrowed Kate O'Brien in her shopping basket that made me want to find out about the other novels the doctor's wife had been reading... I wanted, also, to learn something about Laura [who] lived uneventful days and was, like Katherine in Virginia Woolf's \u003cem\u003eNight and Day\u003c\/em\u003e (1919), \"a member of a very great profession which has, as yet, no title and very little recognition... She lived at home.\"'\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePraised on first publication by A S Byatt as 'excellent... a loving historical sociological portrait' and later by Elizabeth Young as 'one of the most compelling and perceptive books of informal literary criticism ever produced,’ \u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eA Very Great Profession\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e was both ground-breaking and radical, far ahead of its time in the way it takes the work of these women writers as seriously as their male counterparts. A large number of Persephone authors feature, including Dorothy Whipple, Dorothy Canfield Fisher, Cicely Hamilton, F M Mayor, E M Delafield, Winifred Holtby, Lettice Cooper, Rachel Ferguson, Mollie Panter-Downes, and more. If you like Persephone Books, we are confident you will love \u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eA Very Great Profession\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e. It's where it all began.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePicture Caption\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe cover for the 1983 edition of \u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eA Very Great Profession\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Nicola Beauman","offers":[{"title":"None","offer_id":54098771575091,"sku":"lto1789694561637","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Tissue\/Endpaper","offer_id":54098771607859,"sku":"msz1789694561638","price":32.64,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Cambridge Imprint paper","offer_id":54098771640627,"sku":"xkc1789694561639","price":31.11,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Reusable fabric napkin","offer_id":54098771673395,"sku":"vgg1789694561640","price":50.92,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0989\/0578\/4627\/files\/a-very-great-profession_1.jpg?v=1789694566","url":"https:\/\/sandstepclad.shop\/products\/a-very-great-profession","provider":"My Store","version":"1.0","type":"link"}