The Victorian woman question in contemporary feminist fiction

"Setting their novels in the Victorian period, some of the most respected and exciting writers in Britain and America (including Margaret Atwood, A.S. Byatt, Toni Morrison, Sarah Waters and Angela Carter) have engaged closely with the religious, scientific and literary discourses that attempted to define and imprison women. But in addition, they show through a rich variety of fictional creations how women challenged the power of those discourses, and fought for the kind of sexual and professional freedom which continue to be central to feminism today."--Jacket.