Margaret Drabble's third novel is often seen as representative of the age in which it was written – the swinging 60s. But for the narrator, Rosamund Stacey, who admits to being "a Victorian" when it comes to sex, the 60s are not particularly swinging. A novel that focuses on "life's little ironies" centres on a particularly cruel one: Rosamund's only sexual encounter results in her becoming pregnant.
She loses her virginity to George, a man whom she does not know very well and, what's more, initially thinks is gay. Meanwhile, she is dating two other men in a peculiar arrangement whereby she avoids having to sleep with either because they each believe she is sleeping with the other. It is hard to tell whether Rosamund has a laissez-faire attitude to relationships or is just naive, as in all other respects she is extremely intelligent – she's a doctoral student completing a thesis.
Drabble does not romanticise the reputed sexual liberation of women in the period. Instead, we follow Rosamund as she deals with the consequences of becoming pregnant: her agonies about whether to self-abort, her progress through the maze of the NHS, the social stigma she endures on becoming a single mother. Her very English desire not to cause offence or put people to trouble sometimes grates, but on the whole she's a believable and sympathetic character who is transformed during the novel from being fiercely independent to having an equally fierce love for her child.
The final scene describes a chance meeting with George, still unaware that he's a father. It's not exactly a happy ending, as Rosamund is still alone and learning to live with the burden of a child. But in its realism, it's very much in keeping with a novel that provokes as much today as when it first came out.
