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Greenfield argues that the emergence of the nuclear family as the ideal social structure coincided with and was nurtured by the development of the novel in the 18th century. In novels of the period, the developing concept of the idealized mother-daughter bond became part of a literary tradition that had politically complex and psychologically enduring effects. Greenfield looks at the works of Frances Burney, Ann Radcliffe, Mary Wollstonecraft, Maria Edgeworth, Amelia Alderson Opie, and Jane Austen. She explores contemporary politics around female sexuality, pregnancy, breastfeeding, debates about child custody, and discourses about racial differences and colonialism. She shows how novels helped construct the story of mother love and loss that psychoanalysis would soon inherit. With author signature to previous owner. Like New. Wayne State University Press. 2002. Hb, Dj. USED. $20.00