Drabble, Margaret (1939-…), is an English novelist. She has become especially popular among women readers for her realistic portrayals of middle-class women struggling with the demands of careers, personal relationships, and other interests. Her best novels, particularly The Needle’s Eye (1972), contain detailed and perceptive analyses of dilemmas women face in the modern world.
Drabble’s early novels, such as A Summer Bird-Cage (1963) and The Garrick Year (1964), are almost autobiographical studies of conflicts young women experience in their careers, marriages, and family lives. Her later novels, such as The Realms of Gold (1975) and The Ice Age (1977), include a larger number of characters who represent a cross section of English society.
In her later works, Drabble gave more emphasis to economic, political, and social concerns. In The Middle Ground (1980) and The Radiant Way (1987), she focuses on how social change influences her characters. A Natural Curiosity (1989) and The Gates of Ivory (1992), sequels to The Radiant Way, continue the social concern and characters of the earlier work. The Peppered Moth (2001) tells about several generations of an English family, focusing on a character based on Drabble’s mother. In The Seven Sisters (2002), a middle-aged Englishwoman reevaluates her life after the breakup of her marriage. The Red Queen (2004) centers on the memoirs of a Korean princess of the 1700’s and their impact on a female professor in modern England. The Sea Lady (2007) is a satirical novel about the accidental reunion of an aging marine biologist with a feminist professor to whom he was briefly married. The Dark Flood Rises (2016) follows a group of English men and women as they confront issues of aging and death. Fourteen of Drabble’s stories were published in A Day in the Life of a Smiling Woman (2011). Drabble has also written historical works, biographies, and literary criticism and was the editor of the fifth edition of The Oxford Companion to English Literature (1985). Drabble was born on June 5, 1939, in Sheffield.
