The Review of Contemporary Fiction

A Guide to Twentieth Century-Women Novelists by Kathleen Wheeler
John O'Brien

Kathleen Wheeler. A Guide to Twentieth-Century Women Novelists. Blackwell Publishers, 1997. 442 pp. $65.00.

Perhaps what’s most remarkable about this ambitious, encyclopedic book is that Wheeler wrote all of it, and in so doing demonstrates a wide range of reading and taste. But as with almost all such guides, there are some serious omissions, as well as some welcome recognitions. Included for full entries are such writers as Jane Bowles, Christine Brooke-Rose, Eva Figes, Ann Quin, and Elizabeth Smart—in other words, not the usuals. Not included, however, are, among others, Brigid Brophy (who gets a half-sentence mention), Joanna Scott, and Janice Galloway—perhaps not household names, but better to have these than some who are present—Harper Lee, for instance. Despite the book’s title, it is limited to writers in English rather than covering the world, though there is a twenty-page chapter on women from other parts of the world. So, while the book is uneven in a number of ways, the unevenness is largely a result of the genre itself. Put this volume together with a few others of its type, and you will have a true guide that covers almost everyone. [John O’Brien]