A World of Women

"Subversive critic Rosemary Auchmuty is renowned as the champion of girls' boarding school stories. Auchmuty argues that far from being dangerous and reactionary, these novels present a powerful world of independent young women living together without the dominating influence of men." "In A World of Women, Auchmuty examines the novels in which the heroines of the girls' boarding school stories grow up. To what extent, she asks, do these heroines fulfil their potential as active and independent young women? Why do even their unmarried creators so often marry them off? Do they settle for domesticity and submission to men? Or is there more going on in these seemingly unchallenging novels than meets the eye?" "Rosemary Auchmuty examines the Abbey books by Elsie Oxenham, the Chalet School series by Elinor Brent-Dyer, and Dorita Fairlie Bruce's Nancy, Springdale and Dimsie stories, and utterly overthrows conventional critiques of their work."--BOOK JACKET.