Hotel Du Lac by Anita Brookner

This was written in the early 1980's which is when I was transitioning from college to medical school and still had little idea of exactly what constraints women had been burdened with for centuries. It is set at or around the turn of the 20th century, judging by the all encompassing focus on Edith getting married. She is a self-reliant author who really doesn't need a spouse to get by, so it is confusing as to why she would marry any man that she does not love, but that does seem to be the expectation. The book opens with Edith contemplating her future with the man she is about to marry, who does not want her to work, and it is becoming abundantly clear to her that he desires to control her. He seemed harmless at first, but the more she hears him talk about their future together, the more she realizes that her career as an author will come to an end if she goes through with it, so she doesn't. She is then forced into temporary exile in the quite conventional Swiss hotel on Lake Geneva after abandoning her fiancé at the altar-- that act has so outraged her friends that they have ordered her away to have a good long think. So she does, and we do so with her as we read this quiet book that reflects on the value of a solitary life and the virtues of reflecting on it. This won the Booker Prize the year it came out, so it resonated with the committee, and it is well written, a hallmark of that prize, where the writing is paramount, valued over the story and the ending often.