Since its publication in 1985, the landmark "Norton Anthology of Literature by Women" has introduced hundreds of thousands of readers to the exuberant variety of women's writing in English from the medieval period to the present day. Now the Third Edition broadens the anthology's range in all genres, from the fourteenth-century lais of Marie de France to the classic novels--Bronte's "Jane Eyre," Chopin's "The Awakening," Larsen's "Quicksand," among others--to contemporary work by younger writers such as Rebecca Brown, Jackie Kay, and Jhumpa Lahiri. A total of 220 writers are included, of whom 56 are new. Concise glosses and annotations, period introductions, biographical headnotes, selected bibliographies, and new endpaper maps help readers put the writers and works in context; a new two-volume format makes reading more enjoyable.