Hobson's Choice

Summary

In an incandescent portrayal of domestic revolution, the formidable Maggie Hobson, eldest daughter to the eponymous, bibulous bootmaker of Salford, William Hobson, orchestrates a meticulously planned insurrection against her father's entrenched patriarchy. Disdaining his complacent expectation that she remain an unpaid domestic drudge while her younger sisters flirt towards advantageous marriages, Maggie astutely identifies the latent talent and abject timidity of Willie Mossop, Hobson’s most skilled yet utterly subservient craftsman. With a strategic cunning that belies her outwardly plain demeanor, she unilaterally declares her intention to marry Willie, not out of romantic inclination, but as a calculated maneuver to liberate herself from her father’s oppressive household and, crucially, to elevate Willie into a business partner, thereby securing their joint prosperity. This audacious gambit precipitates a seismic shift within the Hobson family dynamic, forcing the self-satisfied patriarch to confront the inevitable erosion of his authority and the stark reality of his daughters' burgeoning independence, all orchestrated by the very child he underestimated the most.

Synopsis

A tyrannical bootmaker's daughter weds his meek assistant.