Girls in Bloom

Around 1940, with the rise of the teenager in America, there was a rise in the female coming of age novel, a genre started by Jane Eyre but then largely forgotten. For the next twenty years or so the genre became very popular, including both novels written for teenagers and novels written primarily for adults. Francis Booth's monumental survey includes extended chapters on Shirley Jackson, Carson McCullers, Maude Hutchins, Rosamond Lehmann, and Rosamond du Jardin, plus chapters on the teen novel, the lesbian coming-of-age novel and the tomboy in women's fiction.