"A Woman of Substance" is a book written by Barbara Taylor Bradford,
published in 1978. It's a romance and drama novel.
The book is a compelling saga about a remarkable woman, Emma Harte, who rises from childhood of grim poverty to become one of the richest women in the world. It is a thoroughly absorbing story of consuming ambition and revenge, love and tragedy.
The story is mainly a flashback of Emma Harte's life. It starts with Emma, now an old lady. She flies to New York with her personal assistant and favorite grandchild, Paula, daughter of Daisy Amory, one of Emma's daughters. Once they arrive in New York, Emma's secretary, Gay, informs her that her sons, Kit and Robin, are planning to force Emma to retire so the empire can be split accordingly. Disappointed with her sons, Emma changes her will, passing over inheritance to her grandchildren.
Flashback about Emma Harte…
In 1904, Emma Harte is a 14 years old teenager working as a kitchen maid at Fairley Hall. Through it all, she survives by dreaming that one day she will become a decent lady. This became her life guiding ambition. At 16, she is forced to run away to Leeds, pregnant by the youngest of the son's owners of the Fairley Home, Edwin. Naturally, Edwin did not want to marry her because of status differences. Betrayed by her first love, she was deeply hurt, disillusioned and filled with hatred. The more Emma was driven with ambition to make a better life. This became her motivating factor for her later success. With time and some twist in the story, Emma was able to start a business, a small shop to start with. Eventually this small shop fluorished into a retail chain of shops, but not without sacrifices along the way.
She also experienced more heartaches and broken relationships. Through many years, Emma had given up the normal pleasures of being a woman, a wife and a mother. Through it all, she persisted.
Emma Harte has five children, Edwina, Kit and Robin, Elizabeth and Daisy, but not from the same man. The first three children have one child each, Elizabeth has four, and Daisy has two.
By 1968, Emma has gone through two World Wars, including the Great depression, unhappy marriages, and numerous heartaches. On the contrary her business empire and wealth soared in the international market.
End of flashback. Back to the present...
Back to the present... Emma is now 78 years old being confronted by her own family's betrayal.
Once again, Barbara Taylor Bradford, the popular fiction writer and great storyteller provides her readers with so much intensity and emotions through her strong characterizations.
This novel is the first of the series about Emma Harte by Bradford. It has succeeding sequels which continue with the lives of Harte's children and grandchildren, namely, "Hold the Dream," "To Be the Best," "Emma's Secret," "Unexpected Blessings" and "Just Rewards."