201:. In particular, by focusing on mitochondrial DNA both in the prologue and the subsequent discussion of scientific and archaeological topics throughout the novel, Drabble deliberately excludes the fatherly line from the narrative. Biological connection through this DNA, becomes a symbolic stand in for the "transmission of female behavioral patterns from one generation to the next". The women in the novels try to break away from such cycles, such as those found in romantic relationships; but each woman becomes caught in this biological deterministic pattern. Reviewer Nora Foster Stovel notes that this focus on inherited traits along family lines grows out of an earlier desire to explore "inherited depression in a Midlands family" that Drabble expressed after writing
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mother as fraught. In part, the poor representation has a lot to do with the difficulty
Drabble had in evoking her mother: she originally wrote the novel, upon urging of friends after her mother's death and in the afterword, she writes that her mother "was a highly intelligent, angry, deeply disappointed and manipulative woman. I am not sure if I have been able to find a tone in which to create or describe her." When reviewing the book, critic Nora Foster Stovel, questioned whether Drabble successfully created fiction, or whether the novel is more biography; she highlights Drabble's own doubts: "Maybe I should have tried to write a factual memoir of her life, but I have written this instead." Stovel also notes that
225:, etc.) customary satirical verve". Similarly, the M/C Review, noted the relative ineffectiveness of the novels execution: "Overall, The Peppered Moth is a fascinating mixture of personal history threaded through a fictional narrative. While it is not, however, always a successful blend, it is inarguably an interesting one."
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described the fictional representation of her mother, the protagonist Bessie Bawtry, as very unsympathetic and "thinly veiled". When discussing the investigation of matrilineal traits in the novel, critic Yi-Lin Yu describes the relationship between
Drabble and the fictional representation of her
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139:; it is her fourteenth published novel. The novel follows the fictional experiences of three generations of women within one family, and contains several elements that are loosely based on Drabble's own biographical experience.
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Other characters bear significant relationship to parts of
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The novel frequently juxtaposes fictional and historical narrative styles. However, this approach isn't always regarded as very successful; as critic Kelly McWilliam describes in
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at Oxford. However, Drabble was careful to emphasise that, other than her mother, none of the character's family members were based on her real family (for example, sister
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The novel received mixed reviews, with some authors noting the relative weakness of
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Reviews of the novel tend to emphasise the relative value of the novel, but its failure to fully execute the concepts within the novel.
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Mother, She Wrote: Matrilineal
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292:"Origin of the Species : Margaret Drabble's The Peppered Moth"
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322:"Fiction Book Review: The Peppered Moth by Margaret Drabble"
363:. Peter Lang. Margaret Drabble's The Peppered Moth.
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573:The Witch of Exmoor
557:A Natural Curiosity
357:Yu, Yi-Lin (2005).
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613:The Pure Gold Baby
565:The Gates of Ivory
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477:A Summer Bird-Cage
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169:A. S. Byatt
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