Fay Weldon Summary

Biography EssayFay Weldon, who is also a successful stage, radio, and television playwright, established her reputation as a novelist by writing tart, intelligent, and often comic fictions about the l... Read more

[This entry was updated by Margaret E. Mitchell (University of Connecticut) from the entry by Harriet Blodgett (California State University, Stanislaus) in the Concise Dictionary of British Literary B... Read more

In the following review, Clapp calls Little Sisters "glittering" and "witty." Fay Weldon's latest novel [Little Sisters] is by turns hectoring, funny, astute and art... Read more

In the following review, Houston praises Weldon's "quirky" humor in The Cloning of Joanna May. In a recent interview about the filming of her novel The Life and Loves of a She-Dev... Read more

In the following review, Jersild calls Weldon's writing in Life Force and Moon over Minneapolis "intimate … passionate, and funny." Fay Weldon's 19th work of fiction... Read more

In the following review, Barreca asserts that both Life Force and Moon over Minneapolis will add significantly to Weldon's canon of feminist literature. When Fay Weldon was finishing the manusc... Read more

In the following essay, Smith examines the "self-defeating and self-erasing strategy" of the character Ruth in her attempt to free herself from the illusory expectations offered to women... Read more

In the following review, Harris offers a negative assessment of Trouble, noting that the novel fails to live up to Weldon's usual standards. What differentiates the ferocious satires of British... Read more

In the following review, Brookner finds Affliction—published as Trouble in the United States—topical but less than satisfying. To lose one's husband to another woman is bad, to lo... Read more

In the following review, Crosland praises some stories in Wicked Women, but finds fault with what she considers Weldon's reliance on static, "cartoon" characters. Don't wor... Read more

In the following review, Gardam discusses Weldon's humorous examination of sin and evil in Worst Fears. As usual, Fay Weldon has written a very moral book [Worst Fears]; that is to say a book t... Read more

In the following review, Mason calls Weldon "one of the most cunning moral satirists of our time." Fay Weldon has never been content merely to play God with her characters: she would rat... Read more

In the following review, DeMott offers praise for Weldon's collection of short stories in Watching Me, Watching You, but notes her evolution from overly depressing subjects in her first novel, ... Read more

In the following review, Seidenbaum offers reserved praise for The Shrapnel Academy, noting that because of the novel's extreme violence and cynicism it is for those with "strong stomach... Read more

In the following review, Barreca finds the comic elements and happy endings of The Hearts and Lives of Men and The Heart of the Country a welcome change from Weldon's earlier novels, noting tha... Read more

In the following review, Ward offers praise for Polaris and Other Stories but finds Leader of the Band unsatisfying. Fay Weldon, a risky, engaged writer, is an ardent feminist, a novelist of character... Read more

Critical Essay by Victoria Glendinning The majority of novel-readers, one is told, are women; it would be interesting to know what proportion, and what kind of women, prefer fantasy—daydreams o... Read more

Critical Essay by Eric Korn As Fay Weldon debatably remarks (to extract [a phrase from Little Sisters] from the hail of marmoreal aphorisms that rattle across each page): "Sexual passion, requi... Read more

Critical Essay by Amanda Heller "Praxis," we are informed, means turning point, culmination, action, even orgasm. It is also the given name of Praxis Duveen, a blowsy Everywoman….... Read more

Critical Essay by Rosemary Dinnage [Praxis] is an out-and-out feminist hard-hitter, addressed to, and about, women, and we can see that it tries to say: "Learn to be honest, independent, charit... Read more

Critical Essay by Peter Kemp [Fay Weldon], hatcher of the famous slogan 'Go to work on an egg', was once an advertising copywriter. Designed to promote her brand of feminism, the novels ... Read more

Critical Essay by Francis King There are women novelists and novelists who happen to be women. Fay Weldon belongs in the first of these categories…. I have nothing against women novelists ... Read more