The women of Genesis - Eve, Sarah, Hagar, Rebekah, Leah, and Rachel - intrigued and informed the lives of nineteenth-century women. These women read the biblical stories for themselves and looked for ways to expand, reinforce, or challenge the traditional understanding of women's lives. They communicated their readings of Genesis using diverse genres ranging from poetry to commentary. It shows that women who were restricted from official roles within Christianity and Jewish institutions were able to preach with their pens. This is a literary legacy that has been marginalized, ignored, and nearly lost... Recommended. ― CHOICE This is at once an exciting book to plunge into and a treasure-trove to be explored at leisure. The result of prodigious research and meticulous attention to detail, the book also succeeds in being highly accessible and delightfully engaging. Taylor and Weir induct us sympathetically into the various social worlds of the women and their readers and help us to appreciate the way writers, readers, and historical context are bound together, so that interpreting the Bible is seen to be a living process. This remarkable book is suited to a wide audience and will be a great resource for college or seminary courses. -- David M. Gunn, Texas Christian University Marion Ann Taylor is Associate Professor of Old Testament at the University of Toronto. Heather E. Weir is Instructor at the Toronto School of Theology at Wycliffe College.