Margaret Drabble began to write when she was an unemployed actress in England; her stories about independent, Austen-esque heroines are dramatic, but carry the intellectual weight of Drabble’s own narrative inventiveness and incisive social commentary.

          In Jerusalem the Golden Clara has broken away from the stifling respectability of her northern home to live her own life in London. Through her close friendship with Celia Denham she enters a world of dazzling educated people and wealthy bohemians. Clara yearns to be part of their constellation.