Art and Womanhood in Fin-de-Siecle Writing

Lucas Malet is one of a number of forgotten female writers whose work bridges the gap between George Eliot and Virginia Woolf. Malet's writing was intrinsically linked to her passion for art. Her novels reference contemporary paintings and her - often subversive - interpretations of them. The language of the visual arts is used as a literary device, disrupting the narrative structure and creating a deliberate stylistic tension. This is the first book-length study of Malet's novels. Four works are discussed, spanning her writing career; Mrs Lorimer (1882), The Wages of Sin (1890), The History of Sir Richard Calmady (1901) and The Survivors (1923). Delyfer's analysis not only provides an insight into the development of Malet's unique style, but demonstrates their importance in the development of Modernist female writing.