This text reasseses the disparaged, but prolific, "middlebrow" feminine fiction from the 1920s to the 1950s. During her rehabilitation of the genre, the author argues that such authors helped to create, consolidate, and resist new class and gender identities in this period of change. A fascinating study of literary culture, which offers many intriguing tasters of the novels themselves. The bizarre characters and scenarios, and the conscious ironies of some of these "good bad books" leave one curious to read more.