This book describes the rise--and fall--of an elite group which flourished within English society from the 1880s until the First World War: The Souls. Its members included intellectuals and politicians. What made the Souls unique, however, was that some of their most influential members were women. "The Unquiet Souls" is no bland eulogy of a 'Golden Age' but a portrayal of England during four decades of dazzling and often cruel contradictions. Angela Lambert examines the rigid hierarchy of servants and class, the manipulation that kept power in the hands of the landed aristocracy and the very rich, and the unwritten rules and private language that defined membership of this charmed, doomed circle, the like of which could never form again.