Adrienne Rich's prose moves with force, clarity, energy; and soothes with a poet's grace and elegance. The only bad prose in ["On Lies, Secrets, and Silence"] is its title, which conveys a wholly inaccurate idea of whining and whimpering within. Feminism, pedagogy and literature, not lies, secrets and silence, are the subjects covered by her essays. The literary studies are brilliant: on Anne Bradstreet, on "Jane Eyre" and on Emily Dickinson, about whom Adrienne Rich may have written the single best critical essay we have….

On feminist issues, which loom largest here and affect all her subjects, Adrienne Rich says much that we have heard before from others; but she usually says it better. Feminist readers, who may feel they need not read another word on women's issues, will find themselves mining this collection for quotable epigrams….

For the purpose of scholars, Adrienne Rich's most important feminist subject...