Djuna Barnes, Willa Cather, Rosamond Lehmann, Grace Paley, Elizabeth Taylor, Rebecca West, Antonia White and Edith Wharton are among the writers here. Variously audacious, lyrical and piquant, their stories explore the joys and blunted edges of love affairs, marriages, children's comprehension of the adult world, and the ambitions and regrets that haunt even commonplace moments. A celebration of the writers for whom the Virago Modern Classics is esteemed and loved, THE SECRET WOMAN is a collection to savour.