Respectable wife, unmarried mother, divorcee, femme fatale - these are roles that society demands from Scarlet, Jocelyn, Helen, Susan and Audrey. Please Note: This book has been transferred to Between the Covers from another database and might not be described to our usual standards. Weldon paints a truer and harsher image of friendship, womanhood and the flaws of the feminine ideal in this novel than what we expect from novels depicting this period (at least I did). As a feminist, I am aware that many women in our Western society are still victims but, apart from trying to work their way out of their misery by latching onto a male as support, they don't stir themselves to make life better. The novel is by now a bit dated, but I think that it stands out as a testament to the way women where perceived and perceived themselves in that era.

Web icon An illustration of a computer application window Wayback Machine Texts icon An illustration of an open book. Edwin wants to have custody of Byzantia and to change her name; he doesn’t want any name in particular, he just hates the name Byzantia. Giù, tra le donne, se stai molto, molto attenta e chiudi gli occhi e ti tappi gli orecchi e tieni ben strette le ginocchia tranne in rare occasioni, puoi davvero vivere felice. Her friends are no happier: Sylvia, a born victim; respectable Jocelyn, hopelessly trapped in her dull, bourgeois existence; Audrey, who finally breaks out of her conventional life; and Helen, beautiful, vibrant, and doomed. Questo perché il romanzo si presenta come un ritratto ironico della società inglese degli anni '50 del secolo scorso, con focus sul genere femminile; ti inganna, facendoti approdare a cuor leggero alle tragedie che attendono queste donne che (quando lo realizzi, è straziante) non sono neanche per un attimo le reali proprietarie delle loro vite.The first people (women) we are introduced to are Wanda, aged sixty-four, and her daughter, Scarlet. So begins Fay Weldon’s novel, opening onto 1950s London, where Wanda, a former radical who has left her husband, has raised her daughter Scarlet to be as tough and independent as she is. with heavy handed metaphor on every page Weldon also begins to develop her unique turn of phrase and is bitter, pessimistic, true.

the clinging helplessness of her father's new wife Susan, her junior, whose submissiveness is the kind that enslaves the man, not the wife.These women can only try to survive; and then, look with hope at the new generations, raised differently from how their mothers had raised them, destined to break with many of the patterns that had stifled them - once they all land in the tumultuous 1960s. They are at least reading copies, complete and in reasonable condition, but usually secondhand; frequently they are superior examples. Yet here we all are by accident of birth, sprouted breasts and bellies, as cyclical of nature as our timekeeper the moon - and down here among the women we have no option but to stay. To sum up, I found this to be an entertaining, very readable book in Waldon’s usual facetious style; I couldn’t remember who everybody was, but it didn’t matter. This novel marked the beginning of what I know will be a long acquaintance between me and Fay Weldon, its author.