Literary studies: c 1900 to c 2000

These three works of fiction are powerfully emotive stories that combine passion with forceful feminist argument. Janet Todd explores how these novels are linked, not only through the mother-daughter relationship of their authors, but also in their perceptions of feminism and female sexuality.

This is Jean Rhys' powerful and compassionate story of the first Mrs Rochester, haunted by her brother's death and the madness of her mother, she is trapped in a marriage with a man who wants to take her away from Jamaica to England.