Ruling Women: Queenship and Gender in Anglo-Saxon Literature. By Stacy S. Klein. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2006. Pp. xiv + 282. $30.

This very readable study of the cultural work performed by legendary queens advances a highly nuanced and clearly articulated argument based on readings of Bede's Historia, Cynewulf's Elene, Beowulf, Ælfric's depiction of Jezebel in his rendition of Kings, and his homily on Esther. Klein seeks to counter "a persistent assumption among medievalists that textual representations of women are shaped mainly by gender norms—either current norms or ones in the making—and that such representations are thus rightfully studied mainly by scholars who take gender as their primary topic of investigation" (p. 195).

Stephanie Hollis
University of Auckland