The Irish novelist Julia Kavanagh (1824 1877) published English Women of Letters in two volumes in 1862. The work, which formed a pair with French Women of Letters (1862), traces the contribution of English women writers, from the seventeenth centuryMoreThe Irish novelist Julia Kavanagh (1824 1877) published English Women of Letters in two volumes in 1862.
The work, which formed a pair with French Women of Letters (1862), traces the contribution of English women writers, from the seventeenth century to the nineteenth, to the development and formation of the modern novel. These volumes contain biographical sketches of various female authors followed by evaluations of their most important works. Volume 1 begins with Aphra Behn (1640 1840) and Oroonoko and finishes with Ann Radcliff (1764 1823), and four of her gothic novels. Volume 2 analyses the work of another five writers, from Elizabeth Inchbald (1753 1821) and Jane Austen (1775 1817) to Lady Morgan (c.1776 1859).
This important work brought to attention in the Victorian mind the importance of these writers. It has served for many generations of English literature students as a biographical companion to women writers.