Happy International Women’s Day! I’ve seen quite a few
articles today that – quite rightly – highlight the achievements and struggles
of contemporary women, but I thought I’d mark the day by putting together a list of
some of my favourite literary women from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth
centuries. So here, in no particular order, are ten women who you should make
time to read; why not celebrate International Women’s Day by picking up one of
the suggested texts below?
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| Mary Shelley |
Mary Shelley (1797-1851)
Mary Shelley was a pioneer of science fiction, writing
Frankenstein (1818) while she was still a
teenager. Shelley went on to write numerous novels, short stories, travelogues,
letters, journals, and biographies in her lifetime, demonstrating extraordinary
range. Her fiction explores the Gothic, the historical, the fantastic, and the
futuristic, experimenting with narrative voice and frequently examining gender
issues.
Where to start: Frankenstein;
The Last Man; Mathilda
Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797)
An advocate of women’s rights, the philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft
was Mary Shelley’s mother. In her A
Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) she argued that women aren’t
naturally inferior to men, stressing that their ‘appearance of weakness’ is
caused by their lack of education and suggesting that women should ‘share the
advantages of education and government with man’.
Where to start: A
Vindication of the Rights of Woman; Mary:
A Fiction; Letters Written in Sweden,
Norway, and Denmark
Felicia Hemans (1793-1835)
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| Felicia Hemans |
Felicia Hemans was the most widely-read female poet in
the English-speaking world during the nineteenth century. A writer of letters
and prose as well as poetry, Hemans’s work is hugely patriotic, and frequently
explores the position of women in the world.
Where to start: ‘The Image in Lava’; England and Spain; ‘The Grave of a Poetess’
Dorothy Wordsworth (1771-1855)
In her poem 'Why Dorothy Wordsworth is not as Famous as her Brother', Lynn Peters playfully depicts a frustrated Dorothy attempting to
compose poetry while being constantly distracted by William’s questions about
his laundry and meals. While Dorothy did not become a great poet, her journals
present a vivid description of her day-to-day life, and even helped to inspire
her brother: William’s famous ‘Daffodils’ is clearly influenced by Dorothy’s diary entry for 15 April 1802 in which she records how she’s seen daffodils
that ‘tossed & reeled & danced & seemed as if they verily laughed
with the wind that blew upon them over the Lake, they looked so gay ever
glancing ever changing’.
Where to start: The
Grasmere and Alfoxden Journals
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| Anna Laetitia Barbauld |
Anna Laetitia Barbauld (1743-1825)
Anna Laetitia Barbauld was considered one of the great
writers of her time, producing poems, essays, and children’s literature. A
middle-class Protestant dissenter, Barbauld’s work addressed issues such as
religious liberty, gender equality, and the slave trade.
Where to start: ‘Washing Day’; ‘Epistle to William
Wilberforce, Esq. on the Rejection of the Bill for Abolishing the Slave Trade’;
‘Eighteen Hundred and Eleven, a Poem’
Mary Hays (1759-1843)
Mary Hays was very much influenced by Mary
Wollstonecraft, and corresponded with a number of radicals and non-conformists
during her lifetime. Drawing on her own experiences, Hays used her novels to
consider female desire and class hierarchies. Although Hays’s work was widely
criticised at the time for being too radical and unfeminine, she’s now
receiving increased critical attention.
Where to start: Memoirs
of Emma Courtney; The Victim of
Prejudice
Ann Radcliffe (1764-1823)
Mrs Radcliffe was a pioneer of the Gothic novel in the
1790s, using the ‘explained supernatural’ to ultimately attribute earthly
causes to seemingly ghostly occurrences. Often interspersing her prose with
poetry, Radcliffe’s descriptions of nature engage with the sublime and have a
distinctly pictorial quality.
Where to start: The
Mysteries of Udolpho; The Italian;
The Romance of the Forest
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| Jane Austen |
Jane Austen (1775-1817)
One of the most widely-read writers in English, Jane
Austen is still beloved by scholars, the casual reading public, and dedicated ‘Janeites’
alike. A bold experimenter with free indirect speech, Austen produced works
loaded with social commentary that interrogates the position of women in
society. Recent feminist, Marxist, and postcolonial approaches to Austen’s work
have opened up the novels in new ways, and her work continues to be adapted
frequently for film and television.
Where to start: Pride
and Prejudice; Emma; Persuasion
Elizabeth Hands (1746-1815)
Elizabeth Hands was a labouring-class poet in the
eighteenth century. Little is known about her life, but it’s believed that she
worked as a domestic servant. Her work is intelligent and satirical, addressing
ideas of social status, literature, and domesticity.
Where to start: ‘A Poem, on the Supposition of an
Advertisement Appearing in a Morning Paper’; ‘A Poem, on the Supposition of the
Book Having Been Published and Read’; ‘Written, Originally Extempore, on Seeing
a Mad Heifer’
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| Charlotte Smith |
Charlotte Smith (1749-1806)
Charlotte Smith was a key Romantic writer, helping to
shape the concerns and conventions of the period. A reviver of the sonnet,
Smith experimented with form in her poetry and explored both the Gothic and
sentimentality in her novels. She was also the author of four children’s books.
Recent scholarship has shown that Smith particularly influenced William Wordsworth.
Where to start: Elegiac
Sonnets; ‘Beachy Head’
