This thought-provoking study offers a radically new perspective on the literature of the interwar period. Writing from a feminist-materialist perspective, the author examines novels of sensibility, domestic fictions, lesbian writing, autobiography, speculative fiction and anti-fascist writing by Virginia Woolf, Rebecca West, Rosamond Lehmann, Radclyffe Hall and many others. Maroula Joannou provides an incisive, scholarly and accessible feminist critique of the masculinist assumptions about literature of the 1920s and 1930s which have passed without adequate critical scrutiny.Selected for the CHOICE list of Outstanding Academic Books for 1995 (Choice current reviews for Academic Libraries)

'This is an important feminist survey of English women novelists between the two World Wars ... A valuable addition to feminist literary criticism, recommended for upper-division and graduate levels.' Choice'Academic libraries supporting serious research in European economic history and the history of European industrialization will want this volume. Well indexed.'Academic Library Book Review'An accessible feminist critique of the masculine assumptions about literature of the twenties and thirties.'Feminist Bookstore News'Women writers of the inter-war years have traditionally been neglected by literary histories. Joannou's study contributes towards a redressing of this imbalance. ...the study is well-written, free of jargon and accessible to experts and non-experts alike.'Forum for Modern Language Studies'The project of feminist literary history has hardly begun and Joannou's work suggests numerous rewarding opportunities for further research.'Woolf Studies

Maroula Joannou Senior Lecturer in English Studies,Anglia Polytechnic University