'This is a fascinating piece of scholarship, which like all good books, points to something obvious that we have overlooked. In the extensive work done on voice, little attention has been paid to why male authors (and by extension readers too) in the period were so invested in the female voice. Rather than essentializing the female voice, this book will enable us to read female voices in more fully historicised and politicised terms. Christina Luckyj's deft and detailed analysis brings something genuinely new to our understanding of the key texts, positioning these writers within a culture of (mostly) Biblical reading and interpretation that focusses on politics in the widest sense. It will be a field-defining book.' Danielle Clarke, University College Dublin