Alice Thomas Ellis introduces a remarkable collection of revenge stories by some of the finest contemporary women writers. This book seeks not to relay the ever burgeoning factual accounts of how women get their own back, but to show their reactions to betrayal, cruelty, and simple nastiness through the filter of fiction. One of the most satisfying means of revenge, as these authors clearly realize, is to put the offender in a story. Ellis studies the history of women's revenge against men, and emerges with fascinating insights into the dynamic differneces that place the sexes in passionate opposition.

Contributors: Alice Munro, Joyce Carol Oates, Fay Welson, Carol Shields, Pat Knight, Agatha Christie, Shelley Weiner, Patrice Chaplin, Judith Amantbis, Sylvia Petter, Jane Barker Wright, Norma Meacock, Pauline Holdstock, Jean Pickering, Vicky Crut, Deborah Bosley, Amanda Graig, and Clare Colvin.