Isobel Hurst examines the role of women writers in the Victorian reception of ancient Greece and Rome, showing that they had a greater imaginative engagement with classical literature than has previously been acknowledged. The restrictions which applied to women's access to classical learning liberated them from the repressive and sometimes alienating effects of a traditional classical education. Women writers' reworkings of classical texts serve a variety of purposes: to validate women's claims to authorship, to demand access to education, to highlight feminist issues through the heroines of ancient tragedy, to repudiate the warrior ethos of ancient epic.

About the Author
Isobel Hurst is a Lecturer in English and Classics at the Universities of Oxford and Warwick.

Reviews
Both scholars and more general readers will find much interest in Hurst's accessible contribution to the Classical Presences series, with its adroit summaries of the position of women's classical education in the Victorian period and its effect on the shaping of much of women's classical writing over the course of the century. * Caroline M. Jackson-Houlston The Gaskin Journel *
the book presents a fascinating study of women's education and women's writing in the 19th century, which should lead to a new appreciation of these authors' achievements and literary output. * Marlena Whiting, Arctos *



Book Information
ISBN 9780199541676
Author Isobel Hurst
Format Paperback
Page Count 272
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 353g
Dimensions(mm) 215mm * 138mm * 16mm