The Victorian Woman Question in Contemporary Feminist Fiction - Softcover

'This is a substantial and thought-provoking book, with much to offer to readers interested in the history of ideas, as well as to those with a special interest in fiction' - Flora Alexander, Aberdeen University Review

'...King has produced a comprehensively researched and thought-provoking account of recent historical novels by women, achieving the difficult balance of offering perceptive and original scholarly insight to academics and students while remaining accessible and interesting to the more general reader of novels...Her book leaves the reader with an enhanced appreciation of the intellectual and artistic ambitions of contemporary women writers.' - Pam Morris, Women: A Cultural Perspective

'Kind provides a lively, thought-provoking analysis of her topic. Her writing is clear and elegant, her arguments lucid and compelling.' - Wendy Jones Nakanishi, English Studies

The Victorian Woman Question in Contemporary Feminist Fiction explores the representation of Victorian womanhood in the work of some of today's most important British and North American novelists including A.S. Byatt, Sarah Waters, Margaret Atwood, Angela Carter and Toni Morrison. By analysing these novels in the context of the scientific, religious and literary discourses that shaped Victorian ideas about gender, it contributes to an important inter-disciplinary debate. For while showing the power of these discourses to shape women's roles, the novels also suggest how individual women might challenge that power through their own lives.