Oulton, Carolyn

Accidental Fruit is a collection of poems about the perpetual interweaving of childhood and age. It deals with momentous life and death issues, but is equally preoccupied with tiny quotidian details and absurdities.

Concentrating on a period of significant social and political change and exploring both canonical and newly rediscovered texts, this book critically assess the changing culture of the late-Victorian period as represented by a range of women writers through a range of essays by leading academics in the field and cutting-edge work by newer scholars.

Covers four texts from the 1890s that helped to crystallize the idea of the 'New Woman' during a period where the role of women was increasingly debated and challenged, not least due to the growth of the suffrage movement.

Giving a comprehensive critique of Cholmondeley's writings, Oulton analyzes the inspiration and influences behind some of her greatest work and provides an appealing biography on a writer whose work is of increasing interest to modern scholars.

This book provides a necessary critical reappraisal of one of the most challenging and subversive of nineteenth-century women writers.