Shallow, poorly educated Kitty marries the passionate and intellectual Walter Fane and has an affair with a career politician, Charles Townsend, assistant colonial secretary of Hong Kong. When Walter discovers the relationship, he compels Kitty to accompany him to a cholera-infested region of mainland China, where she finds limited happiness working with children at a convent. But when Walter dies, she is forced to leave China and return to England. Generally abandoned, she grasps desperately for the affection of her one remaining relative, her long-ignored father. In the end, in sharp, unexamined contrast to her own behavior patterns, she asserts that her unborn daughter will grow up to be an independent woman. The Painted Veil was first published in 1925 and is usually described as a strong story about a woman's spiritual journey. To more pragmatic, modern eyes, Kitty's emotional growth appears minimal. Still, if not a major feminist work, the book has literary interest. Sophie Ward's uninflected reading is competent if not compelling.

1889年，白朗宁在威尼斯逝世前不久，把一个镶嵌细工的木盒交托给他的儿子，里面珍藏着他和妻子间的全部书信。1898年，两位诗人间的情书公开发表，即两卷本《白朗宁——巴莱特书信集》，这洋洋一百万字以上的来自现实生活的“情书文学”在世上绝少出现，它情深意真，诗趣盎然，受到读者的喜爱，短短十四年间再印六次。 十四行诗的故乡在意大利，它原是配合曲调的一种意大利民歌体，后来才演变为文人笔下的抒情诗，以莎士比亚成就最高，英国文学史上每一时期的重要诗人如弥尔顿、雪莱、拜伦、济慈都曾写过十四行诗。 《葡萄牙人十四行诗》是白朗宁夫人的代表作，历来被认为是英国文学史上的珍品，和《莎士比亚十四行诗》相互媲美。 这部感人的诗集就是他们爱情生活的真实写照，是英国文学史上的珍品之一。其美丽动人，甚至超过莎士比亚的十四行诗集。 白朗宁夫人最初开始写这十四行组诗，大概是在她答应了白朗宁的求婚以后那一段时期。直到他们婚后住到了比萨，白朗宁才读到这本诗集。他不敢把这文学上的无价之宝留给他一个人享受。1850年白朗宁夫人出版了一卷诗集，把这组十四行诗也收进在内，共四十四首，还取了一个总名，叫做《葡萄牙人十四行诗集》，用以掩饰作者身分，因白朗宁夫人不愿意把个人情诗发表。

Innovative in style, its humour by turns punchy and tender, Jeanette Winterson’s first novel, Oranges are Not the Only Fruit is a few days ride into the bizarre outposts of religious excess and human obsession. It’s a love story, too. Winterson’s adaptation of the novel was an internationally acclaimed television drama awarded a BAFTA for best drama and an RTS award in the same year; the Prix Italia; FIPA D’Argent at Cannes for best script; The Golden Gate in San Francisco and an ACE Award at the Los Angeles television festival.

达夫妮·杜穆里埃在本书中成功地塑造了一个颇富神秘色彩的女性吕蓓卡的形象，此人于小说开始时即已死去，除在倒叙段落中被间接提到外，从未在书中出现，但却时时处处音容宛在，并能通过其忠仆、情夫等继续控制曼陀丽庄园直至最后将这个庄园烧毁。小说中另一女性，即以故事叙述者身份出现的第一人称，虽是喜怒哀乐俱全的活人，实际上却处处起着烘托吕蓓卡的作用，作者这种以“实有”陪衬“虚无”的手法颇为别致。值得注意的是，作者通过刻画吕蓓卡那种放浪形骸之外的腐化生活，以及她与德温特的畸形婚姻，对英国上层社会中的享乐至上、尔虞我诈、穷奢极侈、势利伪善等现象作了生动的揭露。作者还通过情景交融的手法比较成功地渲染了两种气氛：一方面是缠绵悱恻的怀乡忆旧，另一方面是阴森压抑的绝望恐怖。这双重气氛互相交叠渗透，加之全书悬念不断，使本书成为一部多年畅销不衰的浪漫主义小说。

《戴洛維夫人》一書，描繪戴洛維夫人從清晨為準備舉行一場宴會而外出買花，到宴會行將結束。在這一天之中，作者以克萊麗莎自己泉湧的思緒、其他人物的思維的滑移以及全知觀點的鋪陳，讓讀者藉由被割裂的片段意象中，去重拾作者企圖表達的概念及情節。這部小說以兩個部分構成：一是時間呈現定格，讀者被引導去沉思空間中種種不同但卻是在同一時間內發生的事件，所以有時作者引導讀者站在倫敦的一條街上窺視著很多人的意識；一是空間凝結，在一個人的意識中上下移動，呈現人物一生中的各個片段。

1913 - Suffragette throws herself under the King's horse. 1969 - Feminists storm Miss World. Now - Caitlin Moran rewrites "The Female Eunuch" from a bar stool and demands to know why pants are getting smaller. There's never been a better time to be a woman: we have the vote and the Pill, and we haven't been burnt as witches since 1727. However, a few nagging questions do remain...Why are we supposed to get Brazilians? Should you get Botox? Do men secretly hate us? What should you call your vagina? Why does your bra hurt? And why does everyone ask you when you're going to have a baby? Part memoir, part rant, Caitlin Moran answers these questions and more in "How To Be A Woman" - following her from her terrible 13th birthday ('I am 13 stone, have no friends, and boys throw gravel at me when they see me') through adolescence, the workplace, strip-clubs, love, fat, abortion, TopShop, motherhood and beyond.