'Adeline Mowbray ' Summary

The philosophically minded Adeline decides that marriage is an outmoded institution. She therefore refuses marriage to Frederic Glenmurray (modelled on William Godwin), and instead chooses to live with him as his sexual equal. Although Adeline is honourable, clever and honest, she faces social condemnation. She is disowned by her mother and by her respectable friends, and harassed by men who assume that she is sexually available. After Glenmurray dies, Adeline seeks protection by marrying the abusive Mr Berrendale, who ultimately abandons her and their daughter, Editha.

At the end of the novel, the ill Adeline is finally reunited with her mother. Adeline repents having transgressed society's expectations of women, and before she dies leaves instructions on how Editha is to be educated.