Mrs. Warren's Daughter by Harry Johnston

Sir Harry Johnston's Mrs. Warren's Daughter boldly continues the story of Vivien Warren after George Bernard Shaw's Mrs. Warren's Profession, expanding a famous argument about women, morality, and independence into a sweeping novel of modern life. Opening in June 1900 in the efficient offices of Fraser and Warren in Chancery Lane, it introduces Vivie as a cool, athletic, fiercely self-possessed "New Woman," and follows her through romance, work, scandal, and political struggle as the women's movement gathers force. When wounded soldier Frank Gardner proposes marriage from South Africa, Vivie refuses, choosing self-respect, business, and freedom over dependence. Her conversations with Honoria Fraser reveal a sharp, witty partnership shaped by practical feminism, while stories of disgraced women like Beryl Clarges expose the unequal burdens of love, reputation, and social hypocrisy. As Vivie pursues wealth, legal knowledge, and professional power, the novel satirizes the hidden fortunes and moral evasions behind respectable society, especially the Warren Hotels empire. The book then widens into the suffrage campaign, exposing parliamentary sabotage of reform and culminating in the tense November 1910 march on Parliament, where Vivie joins Mrs. Pankhurst, Dr. Garrett Anderson, and other activists in a dramatic confrontation with police and power. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.