The Life and Death of Harriett Frean is the story of Harriett Frean, a woman so afraid of life that she will eventually talk herself out of living it. The novel follows Harriet as she is raised to be the ideal Victorian woman. Harriett is proud of her self-sacrifice (which she believes is the highest love of all) but when she falls in love with her best friend's fiance she is forced to question everything she thought she knew. Having decided not to follow her heart Harriett spends the rest of her life trying to convince herself that she has done the right thing May Sinclair was the pseudonym of Mary Amelia St. Clair (1862-1946), a popular British writer. She was known for two dozen novels, short stories and poetry. She was an active suffragist, and member of the Woman Writers' Suffrage League. She was also a significant critic, in the area of modernist poetry and prose; the term stream of consciousness, in its literary sense, is attributed to her. From 1896 she wrote professionally, to support herself and her mother, who died in 1901. She treated a number of themes relating to the position of women, and marriage. She also wrote nonfiction based on studies of philosophy, particularly German idealism. Her works sold well in the United States. Among her most famous works are: The Divine Fire (1904), Superseded (1906), The Helpmate (1907), The Judgment of Eve (1907), The Belfry (1916), The Romantic (1920), Mr. Waddington of Wyck (1921), Anne Severn and the Fieldings (1922) and Life and Death of Harriett Frean (1922)