num_pages: 256
description: Hilary Mantel's seventh novel examines the pressures on women during the 1960s to excel--but not be too successful--in England's complex hierarchy of class and status. Pushed by a domineering mother, Carmel McBain climbs her way through the pecking order and ends up at London University as an acquiescent and undernourished teenager, achieving the status so desired by her mother, but too weak to make use of it or pose a threat to anyone. Though this is Carmel's story, it reflects on a generation of girls desiring the power of men, but fearful of abandoning what is expected and proper.
language: English
title: An Experiment in Love
titlecomplete: An Experiment in Love
genres: British Literature, Historical, Contemporary, Novels, Historical Fiction, Coming Of Age, Literary Fiction, Fiction, Book Club, Womens
ratings_count: 2650
awards: awardedAt: 820483200000
name: Hawthornden Prize
publisher: Holt Paperbacks