Born four years apart, Jane Austen and Dorothy Wordsworth navigated strict social conventions and new ideals in Georgian England, and they were both influenced by Dorothy's brother, the poet William Wordsworth. Both women desired peace of mind and financial security in order to write, but neither ever married. Jane Austen hoped to achieve independence through her novels, while Dorothy made the opposite choice and used her creative powers to serve her brother. In this probing book, Marian Veevers traces these lives in parallel, and finds answers for some of the enduring mysteries about these gifted writers.