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'Aware that many readers are likely to encounter several faces for the first time, Wallace adopts a style that remains conceptually dexterous yet approachable in its capacious exposition of material between periods – an exposition in which countless women writers hitherto marginalized by neglect are retrieved as we shift nimbly between survey and textual analysis.' – David James, Modernism/Modernity
'Wallace's nearly encyclopedic study…contribute[s] to important feminist revisions of literary history.' – Loretta Stec, Clio
'Diana Wallace's extremely useful and interesting new survey of twentieth-century historical fiction by women writers…summarizes the relevant critical arguments and has broadened the picture considerably.' – Maroula Joannou, Women: A Cultural Review
'[A] fascinating overview of the development of women's historical fiction in the twentieth century up to the present day... The lively but jargon-free tone of this book, coupled with an admirable ability to explain theoretical concepts clearly and concisely, will make this book attractive to students studying popular or contemporary fiction, but the focus on lesser-known writers and a forgotten genre also makes this an important work for researchers and scholars.' - Emma Liggins, The Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory
'Diana Wallace's extremely useful and interesting new survey of twentieth-century historical fiction by women writers summarizes the relevant critical arguments and has broadened the picture considerably.' - Women: A Cultural Review
'This timely, perceptive analysis gives a much-maligned genre its proper significance in the canon of English literature.' - Sarah Cuthbertson, Historical Novels Review
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In this first major study of historical novels by British women writers, now available in paperback for the first time, Diana Wallace explores the development of an important but neglected literary genre, revealing it to be one of the most significant forms of women's reading and writing in the twentieth century. Since the work of Sir Walter Scott, often regarded as the 'father' of the genre, in the early nineteenth century, the historical novel has been popularly associated with the masculine world of politics and power. Yet both before and after Scott, women writers developed forms of the historical novel which enabled them to re-imagine conventional history to encompass women's experience.
Too often dismissed as 'nostalgic', 'unhistorical' or simply 'trash', women's historical novels, as Dr Wallace demonstrates in this extensively-researched book, deserve serious critical attention. Perhaps more than any other genre, she argues, the historical novel has offered women writers a mode within which they could evade censorship to address the most urgent political and social issues of their day. While in its popular form, the historical novel has offered women particular pleasures, providing a liberating space for erotic fantasy or even the transgressive thrills of 'masquerading' as a man.
The Woman's Historical Novel combines a comprehensive survey with detailed readings of key writers, including Georgette Heyer, Naomi Mitchison, Sylvia Townsend Warner, Daphne du Maurier, Margaret Irwin, Mary Renault, 'Jean Plaidy', Dorothy Dunnett, Catherine Cookson, Mary Stewart, Philippa Gregory, Jeanette Winterson, A.S. Byatt and Pat Barker.
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a brilliantly accessible and illuminating study of an undeservedly neglected genre. It takes the form of a chronological survey, each chapter covering a decade or so of the twentieth century, picking out the decade's main social, literary and political influences on women's historical fiction and why women writers turned (and still turn) to historical fiction to express their ideas. Each chapter contains valuable essays on authors who exemplify each decade: Georgette Heyer and Naomi Mitchison (1900-1929), Phyllis Bentley and Sylvia Townsend Warner (1930s), Daphne du Maurier and Margaret Irwin (1940s), Mary Renault and H F M Prescott (1950s), Jean Plaidy/Victoria Holt and Dorothy Dunnett (1960s), Catherine Cookson and Mary Stewart (1970s), Phillippa Gregory and Rose Tremain (1980s), A S Byatt and Pat Barker (1990s).
As well as presenting thought-provoking analyses, Diana Wallace's style is refreshingly free of the academic jargon that usually makes literary studies so dull for the non-specialist. Perhaps best of all, she pays due regard to "popular" authors alongside the more "literary" ones. On the other hand, if you're not interested in literary analysis the book is a valuable source of historical novels by authors you may have forgotten about, or never heard of, such as Bryher, Mary Webb and Marjorie Bowen.
All in all, a comprehensive an insightful survey of women's historical fiction that deserves a place on the bookshelves of every lover of the genre.
As well as presenting thought-provoking analyses, Diana Wallace's style is refreshingly free of the academic jargon that usually makes literary studies so dull for the non-specialist. Perhaps best of all, she pays due regard to "popular" authors alongside the more "literary" ones. On the other hand, if you're not interested in literary analysis the book is a valuable source of historical novels by authors you may have forgotten about, or never heard of, such as Bryher, Mary Webb and Marjorie Bowen.
All in all, a comprehensive an insightful survey of women's historical fiction that deserves a place on the bookshelves of every lover of the genre.
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