Midge: A Women of Her Time, but Also of Our Own?

Abstract

ABSTRACT:Does The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel have antecedents in American Jewish literature? The Sherman-Palladino creation has been compared with the work of comedians Joan Rivers and Jean Carroll, but novelist Herman Wouk's 1955 character, Marjorie Morningstar, offers another compelling source of inspiration that sheds light on what makes Maisel true to her midcentury moment, and how the character is more of a twenty-first-century creation.