Maynard. Rather, Phipps provides a thoughtful analysis of her subject's personal life, her religious faith, and her often-tortuous emotional relationships with female colleagues and students. Constance Maynard had a privileged childhood. Born in 1849, her parents were wealthy Protestant Evangelicals. Her father had consolidated a significant family fortune with successful investments in South African diamond mining. Maynard grew up surrounded by servants and by material comforts. Her father,

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... ever, was typical of Evangelicals, and shunned society events, dinner parties, concerts, and the theatre. From an early age, Maynard was aware of the tensions between good (represented by self-denial) and evil (evident in self-indulgent acts of depravity). This awareness never left her, and indeed grew to such proportions that it seems to have distorted her understanding of how to express human love. She had a series of intense emotional relationships, with both men and women, which are examined closely in the book.