In this book, Blackford historicizes the appeal of the Persephone myth in the nineteenth century and traces figurations of Persephone, Demeter, and Hades throughout girls- literature of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. She illuminates developmental patterns and anxieties in E. T. A. Hoffmann-s Nutcracker and Mouse King, Louisa May Alcott-s Little Women, Emily Bront- Wuthering Heights, J. M. Barrie-s Peter and Wendy, Frances Hodgson Burnett-s The Secret Garden, E. B. White-s Charlotte-s Web, J. K. Rowling-s Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Stephenie Meyer-s Twilight, and Neil Gaiman-s Coraline. The story of the young goddess-s separation from her mother and abduction into the underworld is, at root, an expression of ambivalence about female development, expressed in the various Neverlands through which female protagonists cycle and negotiate a partial return to earth. The myth conveys the
