New Women Writers of the Late Nineteenth Century

This book is concerned with the fiction and drama of the period, the poetry having been the subject of a separate book in the "Writers and their Work" series.

Chapter one provides an overview of the women's movement between 1880-1919, and considers the diversity of feminist and female identities and lifestyles.

The second chapter considers the representation of the woman artist in the context of debates on literary value and its relationship to gender and genre.

Chapter three considers texts by a number of women writers, including novels and short stories, with a focus on the themes of motherhood, sexuality, eugenics, and imperialism.

The final chapter extends the fin de siecle period in order to look and suffrage and other drama, with a focus on the leading woman playwright of the Edwardian ere, Elizabeth Robbins.

The dramatic expression of themes addressed in the previous chapters is further explored here, especially motherhood and the emergence of women from sexual and domestic dependency. This work is aimed at: students of literature at A level and in higher education; teachers of literature; scholars valuing the extensive and up-to-date bibliography; and sixth-form, academic and public libraries.

It is the accessible study for the interested reader as well as the academic.

It is a far-ranging account of this complex period of women's fiction.

The study uses many of the main critical approaches and also offers new readings of controversial texts.