Rebecca West and Dorothy Thompson were born within a year of one another, in 1892 and 1893 respectively. Each had to overcome the early loss of a parent, and Hertog argues that neither emerged into adulthood without emotional damage. These were nevertheless exciting times for young women: no previous generation had enjoyed such opportunities for sexual freedom and economic independence, and both Thompson and West seized theirs with both hands. Indeed, the very name "Rebecca West" was adopted from an Ibsen play; you can see why such a fierce young woman might dislike the name she was born with, Cicely Fairfield. 

Women's suffrage was the issue that aroused their passions and absorbed their energies. In each case, however, the quest for sexual fulfilment came up against the constraints of a society in which men still held the best cards. Both women had a succession of lovers, but neither could keep them.

As the mistress of H.G. Wells, Rebecca West found herself kept out of sight, even more so when she became pregnant. Despite her later marriage and other relationships, Wells was the great love of her life, but he was never prepared to commit himself to Rebecca. Her son, Anthony West, turned out to be a talented writer who never fulfilled his promise. At first he blamed his absent father for his misfortunes, but later turned much more violently against his mother; his animosity was obsessive, and it clouded her later years. 

Much the same fate afflicted Dorothy Thompson. She married Sinclair Lewis, the author of the best-selling novel Main Street; though Hal Lewis won the Nobel Prize, his alcoholism overshadowed not only their lives but that of their son, Michael, whose artistic aspirations never found an adequate outlet. Needless to say, neither woman allowed family considerations to impede her professional career, or indeed her romantic inclinations. But in the end, ambition trumped everything else.