They Used to Call Me Snow White... But I Drifted

Penguin Books, 1992

SHE WHO LAUGHS, lasts." What audience could better appreciate the truth in this claim than female graduates of a coed Dartmouth College? In her latest book, English scholar Regina Barreca weaves a history of old wives' tales and new realizations about humor's potential power to change women's lives.

Despite her scholarly approach to the subject, Barreca does not shy from some sharp, and even ribald, humor. Among the book's more provocative questions: "Do Good Girls laugh with their mouths open?"