Reviews

A Literature of Their Own: British Women Novelists From Brontë to Lessing by Elaine Showalter

notyoursidekicks's review against another edition

5.0

Essential for feminist literary criticism. I'll keep this one as a reference work :)

amalia1985's review against another edition

4.0

An exquisite volume of essays about some of the most prominent, and also, some of the most obscure, British women writers. What makes this work so special is the way Elaine Showalter presents her chosen writers. Many times, we see them through the eyes of a fellow writer. It was refreshing to see the views other women writers had for Charlotte Brontë or Virginia Woolf for example, and it was eye-opening to dive into the criticism these gifted women faced because they ''dared'' to break the chains of conformity.

The only element I would classify as ''negative'' is the language Showalter uses. It is beautiful and fascinating for scholars and for us who are accustomed to essays about Literature and Female Studies, but I think it would be slightly difficult for the casual reader to really absorb it or even understand it at some point.

The work continues in a second volume by Elaine Showalter called A Jury of Her Peers: American Women Writers from Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx , where we are able to look upon American women writers.

lukre's review against another edition

3.0

an interesting read, and useful for those who want to know more about women writers in 19-century England.

the_literarylinguist's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

3.75

gerdaha's review

5.0

A wonderful review and analysis of women literature from early Victorian times to the interwar period.
A real eye opener in terms of how much women literature there was these days, how it reflected women's valued and ideals and how it was received and criticized at the time.
The book is well written and engaging and a great way to discover more female literature from the 19th century.

star_laufeyson's review against another edition

4.0

Mi first book of 2019 is for the uni haha. Really interesting reading, though. I discovered many women writers, and I learnt a lot about their struggles, their fights. How their possibilities were growing. I really enjoyed the Victorian part, terrible period for the women. I also discovered more about Virginia Woolf and her complicated life. My copy is full of notes and my to-read list is wider.

margedalloway's review

3.0

A extremely industrious and edifying study. Showalter’s knowledge of British women’s literature is impressively broad, and the blend of textual history and analysis is rather satisfying. However I did find some of the analysis, the comparisons between Charlotte Brontë and George Eliot in particular, to be something of a reach. Furthermore, I found almost all of the chapter on Woolf creepy, for lack of a better word. There was a lot of discussion of her biography and her body (especially menstruation/menopause). The final chapter on Angela Carter and literature since the book was first published also makes the structure rather ungainly. Despite all of this, it is an extremely important book, and it’s more materialist approach provides a useful foil to the more post-structuralist feminist criticism.