Five for Freedom: A Study of Feminism in Fiction

First published in 1972 Five for Freedom is a candid study of five European fictional heroines as anticipatory of contemporary feminism: Madame de Merteuil of Choderlos de Laclos’ Les Liaisons dangereuses, Jane Eyre, Emma Bovary, Tess of the D’Urbervilles, and Tony Buddenbrook. Professor Wagner clearly believes that, in the first place, the role of women in the development of fiction has been underestimated, while the claims to originality of many recent female liberationists have been equa...