'The book looks at motherhood, also social and cultural dictates. Works examined include William Shakespeare's Venus; Daniel Defoe's Roxana; Charles Dickens' Dombey and Son; Harriet Jacobs' Incidents in the life of a slave girl; John Steinbeck's The grapes of wrath; Dorothy Leigh's The mother's blessing; and W.S. Penn's Killing time with strangers, among others'--Provided by publisher.

'A selection of seventeenth century pamphlets revealing the popular press's obsessive concern with female violence--usually domestic--and a discussion of the texts' historical and cultural contexts'--Provided by publisher.