Description
Book SynopsisThis anthology of literary criticism by Victorian women of letters brings together a wealth of difficult-to-find writings. Originally published from the 1830s through the 1890s, the essays concern a range of topics including poetry, fiction, non-fiction prose, the roles of literature and of criticism, topical reviews of major works, and retrospectives of major authors. Together, they demonstrate the impressive depth and breadth of Victorian women’s literary criticism.
This Broadview anthology also includes an introduction, textual and explanatory notes, author biographies, and suggestions for further reading.
Trade Review“Solveig C. Robinson’s important and welcome collection recovers substantial works of literary criticism by eighteen Victorian women. With knowledgeable headnotes and the helpful footnotes that are one of Broadview’s special hallmarks, the book is a valuable resource for anyone working in nineteenth-century British literature.” — Sally Mitchell, Temple University
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction
Characters of Intellect: Portia (1832)
Anna Jameson
Achievements of the Genius of Scott (December 1832)
Harriet Martineau
Review of Vanity Fair and Jane Eyre (December 1848)
Elizabeth Rigby Eastlake
People Who Do Not Like Poetry (May 1849)
Eliza Cook
Editor’s Preface to the New Edition of Wuthering Heights (1850)
Charlotte Brontë
Silly Novels by Lady Novelists (October 1856)
George Eliot
To Novelists—and a Novelist (April 1861)
Dinah Mulock Craik
The Uses and Pleasures of Poetry for the Working Classes (1863)
Janet Hamilton
Review of Cometh Up as a Flower (April 1867)
Geraldine Jewsbury
Novels (September 1867)
Margaret Oliphant
A Remonstrance (November 1867)
Mary Elizabeth Braddon
On Fiction as an Educator (October 1870)
Anne Mozley
Browning’s Poems (December 1870)
Elizabeth Julia Hasell
Jane Austen (August 1871)
Anne Thackeray Ritchie
Style and Miss Austen (December 1884)
Mary Augusta (Mrs. Humphry) Ward
Women’s Books—A Possible Library (May 1889)
Helen Blackburn
Literature: Then and Now (April 1890)
Eliza Lynn Linton
Christina Rossetti (February 1895)
Alice Meynell
