A landmark study in 1978, this book is just as interesting today. Auerbach looks at how we understand and interpret female relationships by showing how they are depicted in novels. The band of brothers ideal involves elaborate initiations, uniforms, rituals, and fierce loyalties. By contrast, Auerbach argues, sisterhoods are often quiet and seemingly powerless, even underground. How do novelists express female friendships in light of these contrary winds? Discusses Austen, Alcott, Gaskell, Charlotte Bronte, Gissing, Gilman, Woolf, and many more writers against a deep look at social changes over the prior 200 years. Harvard University Press. 1978, Paper. USED. $7.00