Marilyn French
(1929 -)
(Born Marilyn Edwards; has also written under the pseudonym Mara Solwoska) American novelist, critic, essayist, memoirist, historian, and nonfiction writer.
Marilyn French: Int...
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Critical Essay by Brigitte Weeks
The trouble with feminist novels is that politics gets in the way of fiction, and sorting out the resulting reactions is like extracting Brer Rabbit from the briar pa...
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Critical Essay by Anne Tyler
[Mira, the heroine of "The Women's Room,"] starts out submissive and repressed, anxious to live up to other people's expectations of her. She ...
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Critical Essay by Vincent Mahon
The Book as World is an exciting book for two reasons: it has a coherent thesis which, if not absolutely original, does make a convincing case for a new reading of Uly...
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Critical Essay by Keith Cushman
Marilyn French's reading of Ulysses offers a bold and challenging new interpretation of the novel while most Joyceans are spending their time glossing and footn...
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Critical Essay by Cynthia Propper Seton
Marilyn French has written her second political novel, which is to say that the actions of the characters in both books are intended to demonstrate an ideologi...
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Critical Essay by Rosellen Brown
Here is the sound of an author tipping her hand: "She turned, as always, to analysis, being a twentieth century woman and so subject to the superstition that w...
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Critical Essay by Christopher Lehmann-haupt
No one can accuse Marilyn French of having more than one string to her bow. If her first novel, "The Women's Room," was a didactic dem...
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In the following interview, French discusses the role of feminism in literature and society as well as her novel The Bleeding Heart.
Seated in the lounge of New York's Algonquin Hotel, sippi...
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In the following review, McCabe considers several titles which offer personal perspectives on cancer, including French's A Season in Hell.
Death may be common to us all, but it is irredeemab...
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In the following review, Woodward compares A Season in Hell with Jane Lazarre's Wet Earth and Dreams, commenting that “[their stories are radically different, but neither one sentimental...
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In the following essay, Dever examines the works of several modern feminist authors—particularly focusing on The Women's Room and Carolyn Heilbrun's Death in a Tenured Position&#x...
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In the following essay, Rubenstein explores how feminist authors have portrayed female aging and maturity in their works, particularly in Doris Lessing's Love, Again and French's My Summ...
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In the following excerpt, Thomas praises the wealth of information presented in From Eve to Dawn: A History of Women, Volume I: Origins but predicts that the series will be controversial among histori...
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In the following review, Erickson criticizes French's flawed examination of gender divisions in the works of William Shakespeare in Shakespeare's Division of Experience.
Of the host o...
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In the following interview, French discusses her body of work, the masculinity of language, and the critical reception of her novels.
The room was elegant, expensive, overlooking Central Park; the ...
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In the following review, the critic praises French's central argument in Beyond Power: On Women, Men, and Morals but notes that the book is “overlong” and presents “a great...
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In the following essay, Sullivan examines how French portrays strained family relationships in Her Mother's Daughter.
The title of Marilyn French's novel signals her view of the compl...
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In the following review, Wheelwright compares The War against Women with Susan Faludi's Backlash: The Undeclared War against Women.
To university students across North America, Marilyn Frenc...
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In the following review, Neverow-Turk argues that although the subject material of The War against Women is familiar, “the impact of the book is still intense and disturbing.”
Marilyn...
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In the following review, Jones-Davis criticizes French's prose in Our Father, arguing that the novel is “too preachy and badly written to count as literature.”
Imagine if King ...
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In the following interview, French discusses American conservatism, the record of her battle with cancer in A Season in Hell, and modern feminist literature.
I first met Marilyn French about 10 yea...
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French, Marilyn
Critical Essay by Brigitte Weeks
