3 novels this quality of "concerned interest"about the lives of friends.Therefore,when my colleagues who are knowledgeable about literature ask about major contem- porary writers I also respond,"Margart Drabble."often these people have read Drabble or at least have heard of her,something that might not have been true five years ago in the United States.If these colleagues also are feminists,a lively discussion is likely to ensue about whether or not Drabble is a feminist writer,an issue I will discuss at the end of this chapter.Certainly, however,any feminist should have read some of Drabble's work in order to know what one of the major British women writers is saying about the problems and possibilities of contemporary women。 One of the principal methods Drabble employs to develop her ideas is the strategy of the poet,using metaphoric language to play her characters against a backdrop of extensive and provocative imagery and symbolism.In fact,it certainly is the richness and depth of allusion,as well as of the figurative language, which contributes to Drabble's growing status among contemporary writers.Furthermore,the later Drabble works continue to develop sophisticated and unusual structures and narrative voices.The first person nar- rator of the early novels becomes a "technically