In proving her thesis that women writers often perpetuate social biases against women, Ms. Agress gives a fascinating summary of the feminist debate of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The book surveys a rich and little-known territory of women's history. -- Janet Todd, Editor of Women in Literature CHOICE This arresting book chases down the hidden villains who proselytized nineteenth-century women into accepting their lot as second-class citizens. Using exhaustive scholarship, the author catches her culprits in the act again and again. Women were kept in line by women writers, who themselves has stepped over it) a ritualized hypocrisy that obtained throughout the 1950's in women's magazines. One comes away from this convincing book saying, 'With friends like that, who needed oppressors?'. -- Gail Sheehy, Author of Passages CHOICE An invaluable study. Lynne Agress collects examples of the way in which women writers both supported the mythic ideology of the Nineteenth Century feminine image in their work, and, by their own careers, challenged its limitations. There is a two-edgedirony in the workings of the socialization process which is made clear by these illustrations from a past age. But are the ambiguities of the process really very different today? I read, and learned from, THE FEMININE IRONY with pleasure. -- Elizabeth Janeway, Author of Man's World, Woman's Place CHOICE Female romantics spread men's myths...According to Dr. Agress, the famous lady writers of the early nineteenth century in England) people like Hannah More, Maria Edgeworth, Ann Radcliffe, Mary Shelley) while achieving enormous success and popularity themselves, only served to perpetuate the ongoing bias against women ... -- Tom Nugent, BALTIMORE SUN CHOICE A useful and informative book. CHOICE A useful and informative book. CHOICE In proving her thesis that women writers often perpetuate social biases against women, Ms. Agress gives a fascinating summary of the feminist debate of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The book surveys a rich and little-known territory of women's history. -- Janet Todd, Editor of Women in Literature CHOICE This arresting book chases down the hidden villains who proselytized nineteenth-century women into accepting their lot as second-class citizens. Using exhaustive scholarship, the author catches her culprits in the act again and again. Women were kept in line by women writers, who themselves has stepped over it) a ritualized hypocrisy that obtained throughout the 1950's in women's magazines. One comes away from this convincing book saying, 'With friends like that, who needed oppressors?'. -- Gail Sheehy, Author of Passages CHOICE An invaluable study. Lynne Agress collects examples of the way in which women writers both supported the mythic ideology of the Nineteenth Century feminine image in their work, and, by their own careers, challenged its limitations. There is a two-edged irony in the workings of the socialization process which is made clear by these illustrations from a past age. But are the ambiguities of the process really very different today? I read, and learned from, THE FEMININE IRONY with pleasure. -- Elizabeth Janeway, Author of Man's World, Woman's Place CHOICE Female romantics spread men's myths...According to Dr. Agress, the famous lady writers of the early nineteenth century in England) people like Hannah More, Maria Edgeworth, Ann Radcliffe, Mary Shelley) while achieving enormous success and popularity themselves, only served to perpetuate the ongoing bias against women ... -- Tom Nugent, BALTIMORE SUN CHOICE
