SOURCE: “‘No Bread Will Feed My Hungry Soul’: Anorexic Heroines in Female Fiction—from the Example of Emily Bronte as Mirrored by Anita Brookner, Gianna Schelotto and Alessandra Arachi,” in Journal of European Studies, Vol. 27, No. 1, March, 1997, pp. 73-92.

In the following essay, Giobbi traces the relevance and meaning of anorexia in the novels of four women novelists.

We're hungry. Hungry! But it's pitiful To wail like unweaned babes and suck our thumbs Because we're hungry. Who, in all this world (Wherein we are haply set to pray and fast And learn what good is by its opposite), Has never hungered? Woe to him who has found The meal enough! (…) 

                                        And since We needs must hunger,—better, for man's love, Than God's truth! better, for companions sweet, Than great convictions! let us bear our weights, Preferring dreary hearths to desert souls.(1) 

The impact of a psychological syndrome upon...