[7] While Duffy still makes use of the monologue form in The World's Wife, her works in this collection are described as being a type of hybrid in that they have the "authority of a ballad – a legend being told, a larger-than-life figure that belongs in myth as well as history.
"[8] Duffy speaks of her collections by saying "I wanted to use history and myth and popular culture and elements from cinema and literature, but also to anchor it in a deeply personal soil and make an entertainment, [...] It was fun to juggle around with and there were times when I sat laughing as I was writing"[9] At the time of its publication, in 1999, Duffy was being "seriously considered for the position"[5] of the United Kingdom's poet laureate, but was ultimately not chosen; she would later become poet laureate in 2009.
[11] She tackles issues surrounding marriage, sex, love, motherhood, etc., i.e. the "typical" roles of women, as detailed through the experiences of famous characters.
"[4] While Duffy's poems still "sparkle with wit, intelligence and an impressive lightness of touch, [they also] draw on some weighty emotional experiences: loneliness, jealousy, self-loathing, desire, the fierceness of a mother's love.
"The complacent end-rhymes of lines two and four are taunted by the askew “buried” and “carried”, and made sinister by the pagan sacrifice embedded in “wood” and “mud” with the ancient “wude” and “daub” sitting behind the rhyme.
"[12] The Antioch Review described Duffy's collection as one that fused "form ingenuity and social concern in insightful, exuberant dramatic monologues.
"[15] Reviewers from Publishers Weekly, felt that despite Duffy's work being "rife with clever twist,"[16] it is a subject that has been done before by other writers and "one imagines these characters would've come a longer way by now.
"[16] The Independent describes Duffy's poetry as one that is "famed for fierce feminism and uncompromising social satire"[9] something that The World's Wife continues, but that it is also "playful and extremely funny look at history, myths and legends through the eyes of the invisible wives.