Women in the nineteenth century wrote--prolifically and memorably. The original and provocative essays in this collection address a variety of aspects of the life and literature of nineteenth-century writers of distinction, who happened to be women and sometimes wrote from a women's point of view, but who always reflected the world in which they lived. The majority of the contributions are devoted to detailed analysis of the themes in the literature itself, primarily in the areas of intellectual conditioning, male-female relationships, social imperatives, and spiritual questions. The collection as a whole provides a framework for twentieth-century readers so that they may draw instructive conclusions about women's lives in the previous century.