krobart's review against another edition

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4.0

Elaine Showalter has compiled an astonishingly complete literary history of the work of American women, beginning in the early 17th Century and covering through the 20th. She has written this book, she explains, because literature by American women has been consistently ignored or omitted from criticism, anthologies, and scholarly works. She points out that even novels and poetry that were very popular and widely read in their own times sank like a stone into oblivion afterwards because the works were left out of volumes of literary analysis and anthologies and not taught in literature classes. Her work is an attempt to bring attention back to many of these writers.

See my complete review here:

http://whatmeread.wordpress.com/tag/a-jury-of-her-peers/

balletbookworm's review against another edition

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4.0

This one gets easier to read as you get closer to the present - I think it's because the authors are actually recognizable (Morrison, Plath, Jackson, Rich, etc) as opposed to so many of the pre-twentieth century authors (Fanny Fern?). I do appreciate the research and work Showalter went to in finding overarching themes in women's writing at different time periods. The road to acceptance has not been smooth.

I still think longer/any excerpts of the authors' work should have been included. Copyright, etc., might be harder for the more recent authors, however, I should be able to find most of Mary McCarthy's work in a library if I had to; the pre-1900 authors are harder to find and compare so excerpts would have been nice for them.

radclyffe_uhaul's review

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hopeful informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

5.0

edboies's review against another edition

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4.0

Only read about 300 pages of this as there were a bunch of holds on it, but it is a great collection of amazing stories of women trying to create and find a place for themselves in this world. More about the writers' lives than the works themselves. QUIBBLE: Where the F is Jane Bowles? I think her story would have added a lot to the 40's chapter.

martha_w's review against another edition

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4.0

Showalter does a great job of placing each writer in her point in history, while also talking about the individual style, strengths, and weaknesses of her writing. She writes about the major themes of each era while making sure to include women who stood outside of those themes. By the end, you not only have a great sense of how women's writing has changed over time, but also a clear picture of how women's writing and the culture and politics of the day impacted each other.

Best of all, you learn about some pretty amazing women.

micklesreads's review against another edition

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3.0

My response to this book is complicated. I think it does important work; no book like this has ever been compiled. However, it makes me wonder what, exactly, we're counting on a "literary history" to do. I may find bits (small bits) of this text useful in pointing me toward previously unfamiliar authors whose work might prove fruitful for my dissertation; beyond that, however, I question its usefulness and, more importantly, the effect it has on the body of American women writers that it treats.

Reading all 600 pages, would be an exercise in torture, at least for me. The text is organized chronologically, which makes a certain amount of sense, but adds to its monotony. Showalter goes on and on and on, devoting anywhere from a measly paragraph to a few pages per author. She clearly despises some and loves others, and I can't help but wonder if her passing of judgment is counter-intuitive to her stated, or implied, purpose. She also gives many sections trite, summary headings such as "The Jewish Sybil" or "The Socialist," an act which seems completely to go against the text's stated drive. In giving a literary history of American women writers, and devoting time to their trials and achievements, should an author really sum up these incredibly complex human figures into one-word headings? So simply labeling and categorizing women writers is at best misguided and, at worst, insulting.

In the end, her critical references are glanced over and cursory. This should be labeled a literary history "according to Showalter"; it in no way seems to attempt an unbiased treatment (as much as such an attempt is even possible). While this could be useful in introducing unfamiliar and overlooked women writers, I feel it would have proved more fruitful as an annotated, searchable database.

canadianbookworm's review

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4.0

http://cdnbookworm.blogspot.ca/2015/04/a-jury-of-her-peers.html

melrailey's review

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4.0

A Jury of Her Peers is a comprehensive look at the history of American women writers from the founding of America to the modern times. It examines women writers and gives a thorough study of each writer but Elaine Showalter never overdoes it. She seems to know that line between not enough information and too much information. The book is basically a textbook but it makes very good reading. I love reading about the history of women and the marks that women have made on history. The stories of amazing things that other women have done over the years inspire me to do more with my life and make me feel that if they can do it, so can I.
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