only because it is too short. One hopes Sangari will develop this section further and look more closely at the more problematic politics and position of Rushdie. The essays on Henry James offer very closely contextual readings of two central novels The Portrait of A Lady and the later The Wings of the Dove. It posits that the construction of women or femininity in James and indeed his entire style is symptomatic of various changes in cultural and political processes in Europe and the U.S. at the turn of the century and earlier. Again, what is remarkable in these essays is the firm description of James' very particular style, which has lent itself to the worst kinds of postmodernist and poststructuralist criticism, as moulded by the pressures of historical formations. The essay that follows begins Sangari's forays into analyses of lesser-known texts which culminate, in further essays, with her looking at almost unknown tracts - conduct books, romances, prescriptions, textbooks - and mining them for an understanding of the complicated, intertwining histories of colonial society. 'Figures for the Unconscious' looks at two novels written a century apart (Romesh Chandra Dutt's The Last of the Rajputs and Arun Joshi's The Strange Case of Billy Biswas) in an attempt to come to grips with "the Indian unconscious" only to discover a multiplicity of pressures defining an ever-changing unconscious, mediated by class, caste and gender, uncovering plural histories. What follows are four long essays (Sangari, along with Sumit Sarkar, is among the most brilliant revivers of the long essay) on the themes of colonial education and the introduction of English studies in colonial India, female misogyny, the role of domestic labour in the rewriting of political economy and colonial policy, and, finally, a very subtle and multi-layered tracking of consent, agency and resistance by women in the multiple patriarchies of Indian society. The arguments of these essays are too many and too subtle to dwell upon in a brief review, but, take my word for it, their insights are truly remarkable and the sheer intellectual pleasure in reading them is unparalleled. What is consistent throughout Sangari's work is an incredible sensitivity to caste, to class and a perspective on gender that is inflected by these and other coordinates. Not for Sangari any happy-clappy feminism or an easily oppositional understanding of women's liberation. The combined attention to all these factors makes Sangari's. analyses very rich and detailed. More than 90 pages of this 500 odd paged book are just footnotes! What is commendable throughout her work is the desire to retrieve plural, secular histories, to give the