Unlikely Heroines: Nineteenth-Century American Women Writers and the Woman Question

(Hardback)

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Description

The unlikely heroines analyzed in this book are fictional women, who, like their male counterparts of the era, demonstrated an urge to break with tradition, a rejection of conventional values, and a desire for adventure. The six authors who created them--Harriet Beecher Stowe, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Louisa May Alcott, Sarah Orne Jewett, Mary Wilkins Freeman, and Kate Chopin--at one time or another all received critical acclaim. However, their gender has prevented them, and their works, from being viewed as an integral part of the important literature of the time. The six novels discussed by Ann Shapiro have in comon a denail of the nineteenth-century ideal of true Womanhood in favor of greater freedom and equality for women.

Reviews

A solid, well-written introduction to the major issues addressed in 19th-century American women's novels.... Shapiro knows the material, the period, and the critical background, and what she gives us will be of use to students.... As an example of Greenwood's Contributions in Women's Studies' series, this volume is vastly superior to comparable texts....-Choice
"A solid, well-written introduction to the major issues addressed in 19th-century American women's novels.... Shapiro knows the material, the period, and the critical background, and what she gives us will be of use to students.... As an example of Greenwood's Contributions in Women's Studies' series, this volume is vastly superior to comparable texts...."-Choice

Author Bio

ANN R. SHAPIRO is Associate Professor of English, State University of New York at Farmingdale.