Brought Home

A woman drinks, and her household — husband, servants, the parish — arranges itself around the fact, concealing it, until it cannot be concealed. Stretton was Sarah Smith of Shropshire, who took her pen name from her sisters' initials and a village on the map; Jessica's First Prayer outsold Alice in Wonderland ten to one in its day. This short novel is her hardest, and there is no easy rescue in it.