Serao is placed firmly in her socio-political context, against the background of post-unification Naples and the prelude to fascism.

Dr Fanning identifies a particular tension for Serao which involves both her view of herself as a woman writer and the representation of women in her fiction, with some surprising results. Through a consideration of the roles allocated to Serao's female characters, the novelist is seen to explore genre from a specifically gendered perspective, and the nature of the impact of gender on genre is uncovered.

Feminist and psychoanalytical theories are drawn on where relevant in support of the thesis that, despite her carefully constructed conservative public persona, in her fiction, through a complex web of gender-genre connections, Serao poses undeniably political challenges to specific social institutions.