About this title: This reissue of the groundbreaking study of female 19th-century writers contains a new introduction in which Gilbert and Guber address the origins of their own interest in feminist literary criticism.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Yale University Press
Date Published: 2000
ISBN-13:9780300084580ISBN:0300084587
Description: Good. Our aim is to create value for our customers through the provision of low cost, affordable products and an overall satisfying buying experience. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Yale University Press
Date Published: 1980
ISBN-13:9780300025965ISBN:0300025963
Description: Acceptable. Unless specifically noted to the contrary, item may contain library markings; 100% of this purchase will support literacy programs through a nonprofit organization! read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Yale University Press
Date Published: 1980
ISBN-13:9780300025965ISBN:0300025963
Description: Very Good. Underlines and highlights and notes, clean cover, wear to cover Goodwillnyonline carries a wide range of quality new and used items at competitive prices. Goodwillnyonline is operated by Goodwill Industries of Greater New York & Northern New Jersey. A major provider of services for people with disabilities and other barriers to employment. read more
Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Edition: Reprint
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Yale University Press, New Haven, CT
Date Published: 1984
ISBN-13:9780300025965ISBN:0300025963
Description: Fair. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. xiv, 719 pp., illus., bib. notes, index; 24 cm. Tight, clean text. Cocked spine/lean. Dampstained near the back. "Sandra M. Gilbert is professor of English at the University of California at Davis. Susan Gubar is professor of English and women's studies at Indiana University. They are the co-authors of the three-volume No Man's Land, also published by Yale University Press. "-Publisher. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Yale University Press
Date Published: 1980-09-10
ISBN-13:9780300025965ISBN:0300025963
Description: Good. Orange highlighting and margin notes in 1st chapter. Very light cover wear including the lower back corner creased. Tight square binding with no spine creases. 1980 Yale Univ Press, New Haven CT, later printing. xiv, 719 pages. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Yale University Press
Date Published: 1980
ISBN-13:9780300025965ISBN:0300025963
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. edgewear, a nice general reading copy, no marking to text. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 733 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Yale University Press
Date Published: 1980-09-10
ISBN-13:9780300025965ISBN:0300025963
Description: Good. Standard used condition, a category that includes cloth bound books missing dust wrappers, slight wear, as well as paperbacks with a little wear and occasional marginalia or underlining. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Yale University Press
Date Published: 1984
ISBN-13:9780300025965ISBN:0300025963
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. 719 pgs in vg/fine condition w/some wear on edges; cover has slight wear. A bold interpretation of the great 19th century women novelists. Prev owners bookplate inside front cover. read more
Edition: Reprint.
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Yale University Press
Date Published: 1984
ISBN-13:9780300025965ISBN:0300025963
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Front wrapper corner creased, minor extremity wear, light rubbing. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 719 p. Index. Audience: General/trade. "Imperative reading not only for feminists, but for any scholar, particularly of the nineteenth century, who thinks he or she has understood the great novels of that time. " read more
Edition: Edition Unstated
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Yale University Press, Cumberland, Rhode Island, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1980
ISBN-13:9780300025965ISBN:0300025963
Description: Very Good- As issued No Jacket. Spine lean, corner bumps, some soiling to the book edges, small open tear to lower rear cover corner near spine, a couple of 'coaster' stains on rear cover, and other light to moderate shopwear. read more
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Yale University Press
Date Published: 1984
ISBN-13:9780300025965ISBN:0300025963
Description: NF. Large paperback, has one small ink-mark in the margin of page 444 and the same on page 582, no other markings, it's as new except for these two minor blemishes, offers "a bold new interpretation of the great 19th-century women novelists" read more
Edition: Eleventh Printing
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Yale University Press, New Haven & London
Date Published: 1984
ISBN-13:9780300025965ISBN:0300025963
Description: Very Good. No Jacket. Literary Criticism. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. This book began with a course in literature by women that the authors taught together at Indiana University in 1974. What they encountered in the works of these women writers was a distinctively female literary tradition. This is a fascinating study. This book is in good shape. The spine is not creased. Out of the 719 pages, about eleven of them have underling in red ink. There is a little wear at the corners and a 1.5" crease ... read more
"This is THE book on 19th century women's writing. It explores, among other things, the theme, most prevelent in Jane Eyre, of a ghostly woman trapped in and haunting a house and what that metaphor meant for women."
"I've been reading this for some time, and decided to go back to it after reading Showalter's new book. I don't always agree with the authors, but generally find their analysis thought-provoking.
Update: well, I've finished, and as mentioned before, I read this over a long period of time and in some cases came back to it because I read the work in question (I reread Wuthering Heights and The Goblin Market both last year). In other cases, I wish I'd read the work more recently (as with Shirley and Villette) or that the author had done more with the specific works (George Eliot, though I quite appreciated the analysis there, especially of Daniel Deronda). All that aside, while in some cases I wanted to argue with the authors (and in some cases thought they were right on or, better, incredibly insightful), I found this a worthwhile and interesting read about a bunch of books that are interesting and worthwhile in their own right. Less inherently enjoyable as a read for me than the Showalter, but it's a different book.
I also know it's has been considered ground-breaking, but I don't have a sufficient grasp of literary criticism and its history to react to that."
"Deriving its title from the character of Bertha in Charlotte Bronte's JANE EYRE, who was locked in an attic by her husband Rochester, this book is a must-have for those in literary criticism and gender studies.
Co-authors Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar examine Victorian literature from a feminist perspective, specifically looking at the works of Jane Austen, Mary Shelley, the Bronte Sisters, George Eliot and Emily Dickinson.
MADWOMAN is but one of the works by Gilbert, a professor of English, and Gubar, a professor of both English and Women's Studies. Considered a ground-breaking work in multiple fields, the text is viewed as one of second-wave feminism's most important texts.
The book's central notion is that 19th century women writers were restrained to creating female characters who fit into one of only two roles: "angel" or "monster." This was in specific response to male writers who saw women as either purely angelic females or rebellious - and often insane - madwomen. Throughout the work, Gilbert and Gubar stress the need for women writers to destroy both stereotypes as neither represents womanhood (for writers or the general population). The authors quote Virgina Woolf, imploring women writers to "kill the aesthetic ideal through which they themselves have been 'killed' into art."
While the book is lengthy, its arguments and analysis are fascinating, funny and written with fire. Certainly not something to be read over a weekend, it's a foundational work that's worth owning for students of English, Gender Studies, Sociology and Media Studies. Much of the analysis can easily be moved from the Victorian age to successive eras with regard to the portrayal of women in literature, film and television. A serious must have for those interested in gender issues!"
"This is quite the hunky tome, a complex, detailed, and interconnected analysis of the state of female authors in the 19th century. I read the book in particular for the chapters on Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, and George Eliot, but the book includes references and explanations from many other female authors of the time -- Stowe, Fuller, Wollstonecraft -- as well as references from such as Virginia Woolf and Sylvia Plath.
Its not a terribly readable book -- this is literary analysis and feminist doctrine and it uses all the techniques that tend to make such writing impenetrable to the average reader. However, this doesn't mean it is obscure or impossible to understand, as long as you are willing to take the time (and look up a lot of German terms).
However, I very much enjoyed the insight into Austen's work, as well as the section on Jane Eyre. Based on what it reveals about Villette, a book I tried to read and rejected years ago, I'm willing to try it again. I'm fortified now to attempt Eliot's Middlemarch. The ideas and illuminations really intrigued me -- they made well known stories more vivid and stories yet unread more tempting.
On the other hand, I got heartily tired of the self hatred, the metaphors of confinement and displacement, the constant repetition of how precarious and untenable the position of women was in 19th century England, where a woman was forced to be either the active, destructive demon or the passive, death-in-life angel. It didn't take long for me to wish the authors would grant that I understood this basic tenet of their writing. However, they work very hard to shade in every possible nuance and variation. In the end, I have the unshakable impression that life for a woman writer in 19th century England was nearly impossible (female authors in the US seemed to have fared better in comparison, with the exception of Emily Dickinson). At times, it was downright depressing.
As a book to read cover to cover, I'd say this one is a daunting task, and it might well turn someone against reading the books about which it talks. But, taken in sections, especially if reading about books or authors of interest, it's an excellent way to obtain vision of those books from this particular angle."
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