The Unlit Lamp by Radclyffe Hall

The Unlit Lamp, is the story of Joan Ogden, a young girl who dreams of setting up a flat in London with her friend Elizabeth (a so-called Boston marriage) and studying to become a doctor, but feels trapped by her manipulative mother's emotional dependence on her. The theme is that of an adolescent girl torn between devotion to her neurotic mother and her attachment to an older girl, Elizabeth, her governess - a 'Boston marriage'. Trapped in the net of these conflicting and devastating affections, she is unable to return the love of the young man who desires to marry her.