In Science's Shadow: Literary Constructions of Late Victorian Women.(Book review)

In Science's Shadow: Literary Constructions of Late Victorian Women, by Patricia Murphy; pp. ix + 239. Columbia and London: University of Missouri Press, 2006, $39.95, 27.95[pounds sterling].

Patricia Murphy's In Science's Shadow has a specific focus: to "delve microscopically" (2) into a series of non-canonical texts by male and female authors, texts that show how the issues of contemporary science could be handled to demonstrate the marginalization of women. These are hardly new waters, and they flow counter to other recent studies of women's agency and scientific writing in Victorian literature. The book's virtues never-theless lie in readings of lesser-probed texts like Marianne North's autobiographical Recollections of a Happy Life (1892) and Charles Reade's The Woman Hater (1877). In the latter case, like Reade, Murphy effectively scrutinizes the dilemma of a woman doctor with respect to culturally designated roles for women; she also provides a context that discusses …