A literary history of women's writing in Britain, 1660-1789 / Susan Staves.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Staves, Susan, 1942-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Women and literature--Great Britain--History--17th century.

Women and literature.

English literature--Women authors.

Great Britain.

History.

English literature--Women authors--17th century.

English literature.

Physical Description:

xi, 536 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2006.

Summary:

Drawing on three decades of feminist scholarships bent on rediscovering lost and abandoned women writers, Susan Staves provides a comprehensive history of women's writing in Britain from the Restoration to the French Revolution. This major new work of critism also offers fresh insights about women's writing in all literary forms, not only fiction, but also poetry, drama, memoir, autobiography, biography, history, essay, translation, and the familiar letter. Focusing on the texts women created, rather than the lives they led, Staves illuminates the central role women's diverse accomplishments in the art of writing played in the literary history of the period. Authors celebrated in their own time and now neglected and those more recently revalued and studied, are given equal attention. The book's organizations by chronology and its attention to history challenge the way we periodize literary history and insist that we must understand the significance of women's texts in their historical context. Each chapter includes a list of key works written in the period covered, as well as a narrative and critical assessment of the works. This magisterial work includes a comprehensive bibliography and list of modern editions of the authors discussed.

Contents:

1 Public women: the Restoration to the death of Aphra Behn, 1660-1689 27

2 Partisans of virtue and religion, 1689-1702 90

3 Politics, gallantry, and ladies in the reign of Queen Anne, 1702-1714 122

4 Battle joined, 1715-1737 166

5 Women as members of the literary family, 1737-1756 228

6 Bluestockings and sentimental writers, 1756-1776 286

7 Romance and comedy, 1777-1789 362

Recommended modern editions 491.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0521858658

OCLC:

71617482