title: Women in Literature: Reading through the Lens of Gender
author: Jerilyn Fisher
description: Grade 9 Up-Despite years of feminist criticism, there is still a gap on reference shelves when it comes to a feminine approach to literature. This collection of two- to three-page signed essays looking at 96 works of fiction (both canonical works and newer/less familiar titles) is a sorely needed resource. The literary works run the gamut from Homer and William Shakespeare to Alice Walker and Amy Tan. Despite the inclusion of several weak articles, most libraries will want to consider this volume. The questions asked in many of the essays will be helpful in both understanding and re-evaluating these multifaceted works: For example, why, in Mark Twain's <i>The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn</i>, do the men move about and the women all stay put? What does that say about the role of a woman in Twain's society? Kim Martin Long examines the "female presences" in Herman Melville's <i>Moby-Dick</i>, "one of the least female fictional works of all time." Add to that examinations of books such as Edwidge Danticat's <i>Breath, Eyes, Memory</i>; Buchi Emecheta's <i>The Bride Price</i>; and those popular with YA readers, such as Suzanne Fisher Staples's <i>Shabanu</i> and Julia Alvarez's <i>How the Garca Girls Lost Their Accent</i>. An appendix presents thematic lists of books: "Young Girls and Adolescents," "Women and Suicide," "Women as Sex Objects," etc. There are also author and subject indexes. Teachers looking for ways to shake up their traditional reading lists and students looking for a different approach to some classics will find this book of interest.<i>-Herman Sutter, Saint Agnes Academy, Houston, TX</i> <br />Copyright  Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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  Woman's Trials
  
  
  [PREFACE.  
    
  ](Woman%27s%20Trials_split_001.html#filepos4293)[A LESSON OF PATIENCE.  
    
  ](Woman%27s%20Trials_split_001.html#filepos6084)[I DIDN'T THINK OF THAT!  
    
  ](Woman%27s%20Trials_split_001.html#filepos35605)[TAKING BOARDERS.  
    
  ](Woman%27s%20Trials_split_001.html#filepos57217)[CHAPTER II.  
    
  ](Woman%27s%20Trials_split_001.html#filepos66545)[CHAPTER III.  
    
  ](Woman%27s%20Trials_split_001.html#filepos76254)[CHAPTER IV.  
    
  ](Woman%27s%20Trials_split_001.html#filepos91094)[CHAPTER V.  
    
  ](Woman%27s%20Trials_split_001.html#filepos101203)[CHAPTER VI.  
    
  ](Woman%27s%20Trials_split_001.html#filepos115598)[CHAPTER VII.  
    
  ](Woman%27s%20Trials_split_002.html#filepos131953)[CHAPTER VIII.  
    
  ](Woman%27s%20Trials_split_002.html#filepos142218)[CHAPTER IX.  
    
  ](Woman%27s%20Trials_split_002.html#filepos151215)[CHAPTER X.  
    
  ](Woman%27s%20Trials_split_002.html#filepos160275)[CHAPTER XI.  
    
  ](Woman%