Tag: Women’s literature
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A Renaissance Friendsgiving: Marguerite de Navarre’s Heptameron
“For a long time I have cherished all the many excellent gifts that God bestowed upon you; prudence worthy of a philosopher; chastity; moderation; piety; an invincible strength of soul, and a marvelous contempt for all the vanities of this world. Who could keep from admiring, in a great king’s sister, such qualities as these,…
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Egypt Under the Sun: Agatha Christie’s Akhnaton
AKHNATON: More lands, more subject peoples, bigger palaces, still greater temples to Amon, thousands of beautiful women where my father had hundreds? No, Horemheb, listen to my dream. A kingdom where men dwell in peace and brotherhood, foreign countries given back to rule themselves, fewer priests, fewer sacrifices. Instead of many women—one woman. A woman…
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Shadow of the Colossus: Susan Fenimore Cooper’s Elinor Wyllys and Other Work
“Writing may be a very pleasant pastime; but printing seems to have many disagreeable consequences attending every stage of the process” – Elinor Wyllys, author preface “‘Yes,’ replied Mrs. Bernard; ‘but it is a pity her face should be so ugly; for she has rather a pretty figure—‘“ – Elinor Wyllys, chapter 2 Whew wee,…
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Women Down: Fact, Fiction, and the Feminist Novellas of the Marys Wollstonecraft
“In an artless tale, without episodes, the mind of a woman, who has thinking powers is displayed. The female organs have been thought too weak for this arduous employment; and experience seems to justify the assertion. Without arguing physically about possibilities—in a fiction, such a being may be allowed to exist; whose grandeur is derived…
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For Those in Peril on the Sea (and Life): Shipwrecked with Barbara Newhall Follett’s Lost Island
“Even beauty changed. You changed. You were caught in the midst of complex currents of continual change. Perhaps it was good, if only you could accept it completely—if only your heartstrings would accept it. Perhaps it could keep you alive and happy and excited, if you knew how to use it. That was how you…
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Original Chick Lit: 19th Century American Women Writers, Readers, and the Little House that Millbank Built
“Ma spread the between-meals red-checked cloth on the table, and on it she set the shining-clean lamp. She laid there the paper-covered Bible, the big green Wonders of the Animal World, and the novel named Millbank.” – On the Banks of Plum Creek, chapter 17 “Every window and shutter at Millbank was closed. Knots of…
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Different Worlds, Different Tongues: The Life and Works of Toru Dutt
One of the required classes for my English Literature BA at the University of Pittsburgh was one called “World Literature in English,” presumably an attempt by the program to make sure its graduates were exposed to at least a handful of writers who weren’t white at the end of four years of reading. Rather than…
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Into the Open Air: Barbara Newhall Follett, The House Without Windows, and Life Imitating Art
“She would be invisible forever to all mortals, save those few who have minds to believe, eyes to see. To these she is ever present, the spirit of Nature—a sprite of the meadow, a naiad of lakes, a nymph of the woods.” — The House Without Windows (p. 205) In 2002-ish, when I was graduating…
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Unfinished Business: The Second Part of Mary Wroth’s Urania
A year and a half ago, I introduced all of you to Mary Wroth and her sprawling Jacobean pastoral roman à clef, Urania. In that post, I promised to keep my eyes peeled for an ultra-rare copy of Urania’s incomplete second part in the wild and report back if I successfully got my hands on…
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The Little House that Libertarianism Built: Myths of the American Frontier and Rose Wilder Lane’s Let the Hurricane Roar
“We are having hard times now, but we should not dwell upon them but think of the future. It has never been easy to build up a country, but how much easier it is for us, with such great comforts and conveniences, kerosene, cookstoves, and even railroads and fast posts, than it was for our…
Sarah Holz 