Becoming a Heroine

Reading About Women in Novels

By: Rachel Brownstein

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Hardcover | 19 May 1994 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Hardcover
337 Pages

Age
22+

Dimensions(cm)
22.86 x 15.24 x 2.54

Hardcover

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$47.75

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Now back in print, this feminist classic explores how women define themselves and their lives in terms of novels. Many of the greatest novels in English have women as their protagonists, and women have always been the novel's most faithful readers. Why is it that fiction and women relate so intimately? In this spirited and intelligent book, Rachel Brownstein argues that readers are both affected and reflected by classic English novels, which focus, more often than not, on a woman whose choosing of a husband amounts to the choosing of a self. Three sections of the book--Being Perfect, Getting Married, and Thinking It Over--are devoted to defining the heroine as a fiction that shapes actual lives as well as traditional narratives. For like the central character, the novel reader confronts this powerful idea of the heroine and like her, is conscious of her own distance from it. Brownstein also examines how the stories we read influence our notions of how we should live and seeks to understand how novelists have construed heroism in feminine life. In fresh, wonderfully nuanced readings of works by Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, George Eliot, Henry James, and Virginia Woolf, she considers woman-centered novels as rewritings of romance, and analyzes the thematic links and echoes that connect these works not only to each other but to women's lives. This splendidly provocative book shows how good novels, intelligent heroines, and careful readers are skeptical of the romantic ideal of a perfected, integral self.

Industry Reviews

A splendid book, a rare combination of critical brilliance and personal warmth. Brownstein speaks for a generation, perhaps a tradition, of passionate women readers; she stands for literary values that need to be defended against the chilling abstractions of contemporary theory, and that remind us why we read and how we shape our lives by our books. "A splendid book, a rare combination of critical brilliance and personal warmth. Brownstein speaks for a generation, perhaps a tradition, of passionate women readers; she stands for literary values that need to be defended against the chilling abstractions of contemporary theory, and that remind us why we read and how we shape our lives by our books." -- "Elaine Showalter"

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You Can Find This Book In

Non-Fiction Society & Culture Social Groups Gender Studies Gender Studies: Women and Girls Sociology & Anthropology Sociology Social Issues & Processes Feminism & Feminist Theory Literature, Poetry & Plays History & Criticism of Literature Literary Studies of Fiction

Miscellaneous Items Education Cultural Studies

Introduction
Being Perfect	p. 3
My Life in Fiction	p. 32
An Exemplar to Her Sex
Getting Married: Jane Austen	p. 79
Thinking It Over
Life as Literature, Revision as Romance	p. 137
Villette	p. 154
The Egoist	p. 182
Daniel Deronda	p. 203
The Portrait of a Lady	p. 239
Mrs. Dalloway	p. 271
Afterword	p. 292
Postscript	p. 297
Notes	p. 302
Index	p. 330
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.

Becoming a Heroine

Reading About Women in Novels

At a Glance

Hardcover

Industry Reviews

Shipping

How to return your order

Defective items

You Can Find This Book In

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