The Heroine's Text: Readings in the French and English Novel, 1722-1782

Nancy K. Miller is best known for The Heroine's Text: Readings in the French and English Novel, 1722-1782, which is clearly not a book that passes unperceived (to paraphrase Peter Brooks of Yale). Here Miller takes on the role of women with her trademark unsentimental criticism. Her style is terse, often funny, and readable. After a thorough linear analysis of a narrative sequence, she discusses the ideological consequence of the novel. Because she doesn't have an axe to grind, her critiques cannot be dismissed as "feminist" but rather bring added depth to the study of the novel.