Narcissistic mothers are an important motif in modernist literature. Tracing its appearance in the works of writers such as D.H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf, this book questions the dichotomous image of either benevolent or suffocating mother, which has pervaded religion, art, and literature for centuries. Instead of focusing on the mother-child dyad as characterized primarily by maternal domination and the childs submission, Marie Géraldine Rademacher insists on the definitional nuances of the term narcissism and considers the political and socioeconomic context of the time in shaping these womens narcissistic behavior. The study thus inspires a more positive (re)reading of the protagonists.