Books in the Women writers series

This study considers Wharton's fiction as a reaction against both the male pastoral romance and the female domestic novel. It argues that her novels are concerned with the bond that exists between the individual and society rather than an escape from, or passive acceptance of, social constraints.

Jean Rhys' writings are examined through the frames of feminist criticism and literary theory, providing close readings of the texts and their language. Each novel is treated as a complete aesthetic whole, with substantial references to the short stories, for a more penetrating insight into Jean Rhys' fictional universe.

Through close readings of Doris Lessing's novels from The Grass is Singing to The Fifth Child, Margaret Moan Rowe maps many of the literary and cultural negotiations that make Doris Lessing both a maverick and a mainstream novelist.