A woman of substance vs The bent twig: Which Should You Read?

A woman of substance Barbara Taylor Bradford · 1979 ★★★★☆ 4.3 755 pages · ≈ 13 h 59 m · Moderate

“Emma Harte leaned forward and looked out of the window.”

Emma Harte Lowther Ainsley is seventy-eight years old and one of the richest most powerful women in the world. Self-reliant and ruthless, she uses money as a weapon and adversity as a tool. In her poverty-stricken…

The bent twig Dorothy Canfield Fisher · 1915 ★★★★☆ 3.9 480 pages · ≈ 8 h 53 m · Challenging

“LIKE most happy childhoods, Sylvia's early years lay back of her in a long, cheerful procession of featureless days, the outlines of which were blurred into one shimmering glow by the very radiance of their sunshine.”

Unlike other young women of her generation, who were "bred up from childhood to sit behind tea-tables and say the right things to tea-drinkers," Sylvia Marshall - the "twig" of this novel - was reared to think for…