Focuses on the work of four Victorian anti-feminist women writers-- Eliza Linton, Charlotte Yonge, Mrs. H. Ward, and Margaret Oliphant-- and asks why, despite their own liberated lifestyles, they publicly opposed the advancement of women. Surveys women's anti- feminist attitudes after Mary Wollstonecraft's death, as well as selections from the novelists' best known works and journalism, examining their construction of gender ideals, criticism of the church, and their antagonism to literary predecessors such as Jane Austin and George Eliot. The author stresses their inconsistencies, and suggests that their novels reveal a strong attraction to the world of work. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR