Amanuenses to the Present: Protagonists in the Fiction of Penelope Mortimer, Margaret Drabble, and Fay Weldon

This study follows three British writers through their fiction. Minute textual analysis and juxtaposition reveal how disappointed female heroines manage to reinvent themselves while supported by opportunity, necessity, or education. They come to feel responsible for their own roots, and strive to live fully integrated lives which incorporate communal consciousness. The growing accessibility of everything beyond the home has caused an enormous amount of confusion as women try to sort out the complexity of what modern society offers.