This study focuses on the work of four Victorian anti-feminist women writers - Eliza Lynn Linton, Charlotte M. Yonge, Mrs Humphry Ward, and Margaret Oliphant - examining their self-contradictory responses to the debate about women's role in family life and society. Individual chapters review women's anti-feminism from 1792-1850, and fresh readings of their best-known novels emphasize the inconsistencies of their masculine and feminine ideals.

Acknowledgements - Introduction - The Anti-Feminist Woman 1792-1850 - Anti-Feminist Women and Women's Writing - 'Ardour and Submission': Heroines - Heroes - Journalism - The Anti-Feminist Woman and Religion - Conclusion - Notes - Biographical Appendix - Bibliography -Index