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Mildred Pierce is a novel (1941) by James M. Cain. It was made into a feature film starring Joan Crawford.

Characters

• Mildred – middle-class mother of two
• Bert – husband of Mildred
• Ray and Veda – daughters of Mildred
• Wally – business partner of Bert
• Monty – friend of Mildred
• Ida – waitress and friend of Mildred

Plot summary

Template:Spoiler Set in Los Angeles in the 1930s, Mildred Pierce is the story of a middle-class, single mother's attempt to maintain her and her family's social position during the Great Depression. Frustrated by her unemployed, shiftless husband, and worried by their dwindling finances, Mildred separates from him and sets out to support herself and her children on her own. After a difficult search for a job among the ranks of the unemployed, she finally finds one but worries that it is beneath her middle-class station. Actually, Mildred worries more that her ambitious daughter Veda will think her new job beneath her. Veda happily enjoys Mildred's new financial success but increasingly turns ungrateful, demanding more and more from her hard-working mother and letting her contempt for people who must work for a living be known. Mildred's attachment to her forms the central tragedy of the novel. Template:Endspoiler

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

In 1945, the novel was made into a film starring Joan Crawford, Eve Arden, Ann Blyth, Jack Carson, Bruce Bennett, and Lee Patrick.