Story of Avis
Author: first_name: Elizabeth Stuart
last_name: Phelps
Language: English
Year: 1877

Elizabeth Stuart Phelps's 1877 novel is set in a New England college town, and focuses on Avis Dobell, a professor's daughter.  Avis is a talented painter, and bucks against the constraints placed on women in the 19th century.  She wants to pursue a career as an artist and rejects marriage and motherhood, until she meets the charismatic young professor Philip Ostrander.  Phelps's novel is a beautifully-written examination of the conflicts between marriage and career for women that is still relev