Ozouf, a French historian, profiles ten French women of letters whose lives span the period from the eve of the French Revolution to the resurgence of the feminist movement in the late 20th century. She studies the letters and memoirs of such women as Mme Roland, George Sand, Colette, and Simone de Beauvoir to reveal their often-conflicted attitudes toward education, marriage, motherhood, sex, and the world, as well as the dilemma of writing in a literary world that did not support women's work. She claims that a uniquely French feminism informed their lives, one that is more tolerant of difference than its American and British counterparts and that, therefore, has not isolated women from men in the same ways. Translated from the original edition published in French in 1995. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.