Madeleine L'Engle

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Madeleine L'Engle (1918-2007) was an award-winning writer of YA and adult fiction, both SF and narrative realism. She is best-known for the award-winning A Wrinkle in Time, and most of her fiction took place in that same universe, following the characters from that story (the Murry-O'Keefe families; also called the "kairos" stories) and others (the "Austin" families; also called the "chronos" stories). The Murry-O'Keefe stories tend to be more SFnal, while the Austin stories tend to have only a few minor SFnal elements, if any.

Her work has significant spiritual themes, often identified as Christian, and particularly focused on "love" and the holistic nature of the universe. Strictly read, her treatment of these themes is closer to the fantasy works of Diane Duane than to the more overtly Christian works of C. S. Lewis. However, the universality of her works and her themes is limited by L'Engle's very public Christian identity, and her centering of Christian characters — many of her most likable and admirable characters are Christian.

Perhaps in part as a result of Christian influences, L'Engle's gender politics were questionable. (See below.) In other political areas, such as anti-racism (The Other Side of the Sun) and peacemaking (most books), her politics are less ambiguous: She was unequivocally opposed to racism and war.

Names

She was born Madeleine L'Engle Camp, named for her great-grandmother, Madeleine L'Engle, and the surname "Camp" came from her father.

  • Madeleine L'Engle Camp - full legal name
  • Madeleine L'Engle - first and middle name; primarily published name

Bibliography

Science Fiction and Fantasy

Mainstream Young Adult

  • Meet the Austins (1960) (Austins)
  • The Moon by Night (1963) (Austins)
  • Camilla (1965)
  • The Young Unicorns (1968) (Austins)
  • A Ring of Endless Light (1980) (Austins)
  • And Both Were Young (1983)
  • A House Like a Lotus (1984) (O'Keefe)
  • Troubling a Star (1994) (Austins)

Feminist, or Not?

L'Engle's writing features strong women characters of all ages. Her female characters are often scientists. They are almost always extremely beautiful. They continue their careers after they marry, but they also take primary responsibility for raising the children. Often, including in A Wrinkle in Time, the woman's scientific prowess is lauded, but the husband's scientific career gets the attention, fame, and adventure -- a potential site of feminist criticism in the work, but most often a missed opportunity for L'Engle, who tended to normalize rather than problematize this treatment. For instance, instead of characters recognizing the disparate treatment and reacting to it with frustration, outrage, activism, despair, etc., the characters simply seem to accept the inequity without question or comment.

A very disturbing strain of "women should submit to their husbands" runs through her work, starting with an early mainstream novel, The Love Letters (1966, revised in 1983 and 1996), the clear message of which is that marital rape expresses the needs of the husband, and should be forgiven. The portrayal of a lesbian character in A House Like a Lotus, featuring Polyhymnia O'Keefe, a central protagonist of the Murry-O'Keefe novels, can also be seen as unpleasant. In this book, as in the early Love Letters, the message is forgiveness, and yet the unhappiness of the lesbian Max(imiliana) is portrayed as less powerful and more pathetic than the unhappiness of the husband in The Love Letters.

In other political areas, such as anti-racism (see especially The Other Side of the Sun) and peacemaking, a theme which runs throughout her work, L'Engle's political stance is less equivocal.

Further reading

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