Although Rebecca West was once hailed “the world's number one woman's writer” by

Time

magazine, the diversity and generic indeterminacy of her writings make it difficult to assess her literary status. She is probably better known for the brilliance of her non-fiction – reportage, travel, history, biography, literary criticism – than for her sometimes over-intellectualized novels. Her distinction was to write about the factual world with formidable erudition, but also with an imaginative awareness of its ambiguities. Although West's range and versatility might suggest a protean literary personality, her writing voice was, at any time and in any genre, instantly recognisable, and her preoccupying myths remained largely the same throughout her long life. First and foremost she was,…

2452 words

Citation: Robinson, Richard Peter. "Rebecca West". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 19 December 2003 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4671, accessed 19 March 2024.]

4671 Rebecca West 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.