Book of Carlotta — Arnold Bennett

The Book of Carlotta (1905) was Bennett's third serious novel with a female protagonist. It follows the adventures of the unconventional Carlotta, living on her own as a writer -- without a chaperone!  Even so, she is confronted with a dilemma: Will she be able to reconcile her ambition with the “wondrous joy… [she finds] in playing the decorative, acquiescent, self-effacing woman.”  The book was later reissued as Sacred and Profane Love.