A review by bak8382
A Secret Sisterhood: The Literary Friendships of Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, George Eliot, and Virginia Woolf by Emily Midorikawa

4.0

I picked this book up off the Women's History Month display in March at my public library mostly because it mentioned Jane Austen on the cover. The authors, who are literary friends themselves, decided to investigate little known friendships of famous female authors because so much more is known about male author friendships than female ones. With the exception of Jane Austen's friendship all the rest are friendships between published authors. Much of the research for this book is based on letters and diary entries and it is a fascinating look at the daily lives of these famous women. So many of them endured so much heartbreak, it feels like everyone Bronte knew died of tuberculosis. I also liked the way all the authors lives were intertwined as Austen and Bronte were an influence on Eliot and Woolf.