<b>Barren Ground</b> is a 1925 novel by <b>Ellen Glasgow </b>giving an account of 30 years in the life of a woman in rural Virginia: Dorinda Oakley is an intelligent, independent and vibrant young lady who is trying find herself and her purpose in life by moving to New York after a love disillusion.<br /><br /><b>Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow</b>&nbsp;(April 22, 1873 &ndash; November 21, 1945) was an American novelist who won the&nbsp;Pulitzer Prize for the Novel&nbsp;in 1942. A lifelong Virginian who published 20 books including seven novels which sold well (five reaching best-seller lists) as well as gained critical acclaim, Glasgow portrayed the changing world of the&nbsp;contemporary South, differing from the idealistic escapism that characterized Southern literature after&nbsp;Reconstruction.