"A Studio of One's Own: Fictional Women Painters and the Art of Fiction" is a critical study of the portrayal of women artists in nineteenth- and twentieth-century novels in English, including British, American, Irish, and Canadian women writers. This book traces the gradual progression from amateur parlor painters in the novels of Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, and others, to the serious professional painters depicted by contemporary writers such as Margaret Atwood. Mary Gordon, and A. S. Byatt. In fiction as in history, the woman artist's working space enlarges through time - by uneven steps - from a portfolio in a cupboard to a studio or atelier where work may be completed and prepared for sale or exhibition. This working space is a measure of the claim that the artist makes upon the world.