English Women of Letters
Biographical Sketches

This excellent biographical companion to women novelists brought to attention in the Victorian mind the literary importance of women writers.

Julia Kavanagh (Author)

9781108020534, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 16 September 2010

342 pages
21.6 x 14 x 1.9 cm, 0.44 kg

The Irish novelist Julia Kavanagh (1824–1877) published English Women of Letters in two volumes in 1862. The work, which formed a pair with French Women of Letters (1862), traces the contribution of English women writers, from the seventeenth century to the nineteenth, to the development and formation of the modern novel. Volume 1 contains biographical sketches of five female authors followed by evaluations of their most important works: Aphra Behn (1640–1689) and Oroonoko; Sarah Fielding (1710–1768) and David Simple; Madame D'Arblay (1752–1840), also known as Fanny Burney, and Evelina and Cecilia; Charlotte Smith (1749–1806) and Emmeline, Ethelinda and The Old Manor House; and Ann Radcliff (1764–1823), and four of her gothic novels. This important work brought to attention in the Victorian mind the importance of these writers. It has served for many generations of English literature students as a biographical companion to women writers.

1. Aphra Behn
2. Oroonoko
3. Miss Fielding - David Simple
4. Madame D'Arblay
5. Evelina
6. Cecilia
7. Mrs. Charlotte Smith
8. Emmeline. Ethelinda. The Old Manor House
9. Mrs. Radcliffe
10. The Sicilian Romance. The Romance of the Forest
11. The Mysteries of Udolpho. The Italian.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900 [DSBF]