Title: Reclaiming myths of power
First published: 1995
Description: This book re-examines the Victorian spiritual crisis from the perspective of the period's women writers, exploring the spiritual dimension in their lives and narratives. The introduction considers the relationship between sacred and secular canons and the limited access women have had to both.

In the following chapters, case studies of the lives and selected texts of Florence Nightingale, Charlotte Bronte, Elizabeth Gaskell, and George Eliot provide an in-depth analysis of the relationship between female spiritual crises and diverse narrative strategies that reappropriate the conservative power associated with religious symbolism for a radical revisioning of women's social subjection.

By analyzing the neglected spiritual crises these women experienced, their discourse, and that produced by other Victorian women, this study reveals a more complex, problematic, and polemical dialogue during the period than has previously been argued.
Subjects: Religious aspects of Fiction, Power (Social sciences) in literature, Literature and society, History and criticism, Christianity and literature, Fiction, Women authors, Spiritual life in literature, Women and literature, English fiction, Christianity, Religious aspects, History, Nightingale, florence, 1820-1910, English fiction, women authors, English fiction, history and criticism, 19th century, Fiction, religious aspects
Places: Great Britain
People: Florence Nightingale (1820-1910)
Time periods: 19th century
LC classification: PR878.W6 J46 1995