MARILYN FRENCH: FURTHER READING

Criticism

Dunlap, Lauren Glen. Review of The War against Women, by Marilyn French. Belles Lettres 8, no. 1 (fall 1992): 20-1.

Praises French's focus on the injustices suffered by women in The War against Women.

French, Marilyn. "Women in Language." Soundings 59, no. 3 (fall 1976): 329-44.

Examination of the semantic differences among such words as "man," "lady," and "gentleman," focusing on the ways words change in context and their impact on defining gender.

——. "Muzzled Women." College Literature 14, no. 3 (1987): 219-29.

Discusses several prominent women authors, ironically noting that female characters are seldom portrayed by women writers as having fulfilling, complete, rewarding lives.

McDaniel, Maude. "Sisters and Other Strangers." Chicago Tribune Books (2 January 1994): section 14, p. 5.

Compliments French's prose in Our Father, commenting that the work is the most balanced of French's novels.

Peat, Irene M. Review of A Season in Hell, by Marilyn French. British Medical Journal 318, no. 7179 (30 January 1999): 336.

Lauds French's insightful and meticulously detailed account of her battle with cancer in A Season in Hell.

Selway, Jennifer. "Dad's the Word." Observer (1 May 1994): 23.

Offers a mixed assessment of Our Father, noting that the novel's central themes remain "elusive."

Wagner, Linda W. "The French Definition." Arizona Quarterly 38, no. 4 (winter 1982): 293-302.

Evaluation of the plot and structure of The Women's Room and The Bleeding Heart, contending that French's desire to define terms and language in her narratives slows her storytelling but makes the importance of language clear.

Wilson, Anna. Persuasive Fictions: Feminist Narrative and Critical Myth, Lewisburg, Pa.: Bucknell University Press, 2001, 161 p.

Includes the essay "The Women's Room and the Fiction of Consciousness," as well as bibliographical information.

OTHER SOURCES FROM GALE:

Additional coverage of French's life and career is contained in the following sources published by the Gale Group: Beacham's Encyclopedia of Popular Fiction: Biography & Resources, Vol. 1; Contemporary Authors, Vols. 69-72; Contemporary Authors New Revision Series, Vols. 3, 31; Contemporary Literary Criticism, Vols. 10, 18, 60, 177; Contemporary Novelists, Ed. 7; Contemporary Popular Writers; DISCovering Author Modules: Dramatists, Novelists and Popular Fiction and Genre Authors; Feminist Writers; Literature Resource Center; and Major 20th-Century Writers, Eds. 1, 2.