Glad I wasn't born in Victorian times....

This book had been on my To Be Read list for a while. Something about it intrigued me, but still I kept putting off actually reading it. Too many other books that piqued my interest more, I guess. This book is only about 136 pages long, but it really packs a wallop. It's about a girl, born to a British family, in India. After a terrible tragedy, the family returns to their native land. The girl and her sister are raised in a very restrictive Victorian home. Esme, a rather free spirit, struggles against the constraints that her family places upon her and eventually pays a terrible price or it. My biggest complaint with the book is the speed and frequency in which the authors changes perspective from one character to another. It made me feel crazy. I was always wondering who was talking. This, of course, is done for effect and done well. I was amazed to learn that during this period of time, a man - either a husband or a father - could have a woman committed into an asylum for very little offense at all. I can only wonder what would have happened to me had I lived in this time.