One Woman’s Life

"At sixteen, Milly Ridge knows what she wants of life, and knows that it is not available in the west side Chicago neighborhood where she lives. Planning her future carefully, she maneuvers her family into a fashionable area of the city where a wealthy marriage may be made with a minimum of effort. Despite well-laid plans and appropriate actions, Milly falls in love and marries a struggling young artist who has none of the material things she values so highly. New York and Paris offer the life Milly desires, and she finds a measure of contentment just being in the social whirl of those two cities, although her impoverished husband never attains the degree of wealth or stature that she wishes. A second marriage proves more advantageous. One Woman's Life ranks among Herrick's major works, typifying the social climber in a most unflattering way, but emphasizing certain basic truths which make the novel timeless."--Book Review Digest, 1913