Schulz’ dynamic female characters, though accessible to a wide audience, have particular appeal for women. Schulz understands that readers find it refreshing when authors flesh out their protagonists by examining who they are through the prism of familial interactions, not just romantic relationships. Contemporary readers can identify with many of the issues that wife and parent Marie struggles with in The Last Rose of Summer, even though (and, perhaps, because) it concludes just as the Jazz Age is poised to shift into the Great Depression.