The Rector's Wife

When her husband, Peter, is passed over for a promotion to archdeacon, Anna Bouverie seems destined to spend years as a rural rector’s wife. Chafing under the church’s expectations and responding to the pressing needs of her children, she resolves to look for work-deeply displeasing both Peter and his parishioners.

Anna’s plight attracts the growing attention of Patrick O’Sullivan, the bachelor businessman who has become her new neighbor, and Jonathan, a dark, intense writer who cultivates Anna’s rebelliousness with books.

After visiting her friend Eleanor in Oxford, Anna returns to feel besieged by meddlesome women from the church and increasingly insistent advances from O’Sullivan. Meanwhile, her attraction to Jonathan blossoms. Yet a grave misunderstanding by O’Sullivan’s housekeeper leads to a fateful revelation for Peter.

When a tragedy ironically releases Anna from her marriage, she sets out to assert her independence at last. She’s surprised to learn that she has had the tacit sympathies of some parishioners all along. She finds love-but on her own terms-and eventually reconciles herself with her past.