Literary Women

by Ellen Moers

One of the pioneering works of feminist criticism, Literary Women separates women from the mainstram of literary history and examines how the fact that they were women influenced both their lives and their writing. Included are discussions of Jane Austen, George Sand, Colette, Simone Weil,
and Virginia Woolf.

Genres: Nonfiction, Feminism, Literary Criticism, Books About Books, History, Literature, Womens

338 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1976

About the author

American literary critic, born in New York, educated at Columbia University, Radcliffe, and Vassar. She taught at the University of Connecticut and the CUNY Graduate School. Like Elaine Showalter, Moers was important in founding Anglo-American feminist critical practice (see feminist criticism). Literary Women (1976) provides an illuminating literary history of women's writing; in this expansive and highly individual work Moers speculates upon common concerns, literary influences, and female expectations of American and European women writers. She was also author of the critical works The Dandy: Brummel to Beerbohm (1960) and Two Dreisers (1969), as well as a contributor to numerous journals and magazines, including The New York Review of Books and Harper's.

(from Ellen Moers Biography - (1928–79), Literary Women, The Dandy: Brummel to Beerbohm, Two Dreisers)

Reviews

[Nandakishore Mridula · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read it more than two decades ago. I remember checking it out of the library many times to read over and over - it was that good.

I have tried to locate this book since, but to no avail. I think it may be out of print.

I never steal books from the library. But in this case, I believe I should have made an exception!

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

This groundbreaking 1976 work of feminist literary criticism is exactly the kind of book I like: erudite, wide-ranging, well written, and frequently very witty. Moers examines English, American, and French women writers from the eighteenth century (plus seventeenth century Anne Bradstreet) to the present day, seeking to answer the questions of how their gender influenced their work and whether "women's literature" is truly distinct from men's. Along the way, she delves knowledgeably into the work of writers ranging from Jane Austen, the Brontes, and George Eliot to Willa Cather, Colette, and George Sand, showing thematic connections and drawing fascinating conclusions which make me wish I had worlds enough and time to read or reread every book she mentions. (Well, except Mrs. Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho, which might cause me to die of boredom if I ever had to reread it; happily, Moers's summary of it is much, much more amusing and instructive.) Literary Women is deservedly a classic of feminist literary criticism; even 30 years after it was published, it's full of learning, energy, and wit.

[Ella Raw]

Will definitely read this again when I’ve read more of the writers mentioned, without the prior knowledge I felt a little lost at parts.
Some great bits stood out for me despite yawning 70% of the time.

‘If women writers…succeed with the expression…of passion…their real life experience at once becomes the only subject of critical discussion’

‘Women are the passionate sex, they are always told, and therefore love is their natural subject; but they must not write about it. If they avoid love, that proves they are mere women, inferior to men, next to whom…they are cold, narrow, childish. If they dwell on love they are doing what is expected of the worst of women, who are…stupid, sentimental…creatures incapable of thinking of anything else. …the radical feminists, they are berated as traitors of their sex, for love is the snare by which women are made the slaves of men.’

‘For birds are frightening and monstrous as well as tiny and sweet, and the former aspect of the bird metaphor dominates the grotesqueries of modern woman’s literature.’

More broadly we see the dangerous woman trope and fragile woman trope in all literature, especially male. Women are only ever described in one or both of these ways, excluding feminist lit. It was interesting to see this obscurity around Women’s nature in literature from a man’s pov, be mocked in poetry by women writers; aware of their perception and fuelled by it. Often to write some of the most intricate works that have ever been unpraised and unremembered.

[Natashaketel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ellen Moers was an engaging, talented, witty writer who managed to tackle such a HUGE subject with ease. I loved her discussion on Mme de Stael, Jane Austen and Elizabeth Barrett Browning the most and am now desperate to pick up a copy of Aurora Leigh. I feel incredibly informed and enlightened yet the book wasn’t too dense or overwhelming at all.

[Melissa]

Dissertation prep (I get to read about feminism!)

[Alisha Emrich · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great resource and dive into details about both the personal and writing lives of women writers. I especially enjoyed the chapters on Germaine de Staël's Corinne, or Italy.

[Sheila · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first read Literary Women in college back in 1987 when it was assigned for a women's literature class. I refer to my copy regularly to re-read for pleasure or in looking up information about the framework of women's literature in history (and for my own writing efforts).

The book is divided into two parts:
I. History and Tradition (The Literary Life, the Epic Age; Women's Literary Traditions and the Individual Talent; Money, the Job, and Little Women: Female Realism; and Female Gothic)

II. Heroinism - the role of woman as hero/role model (Traveling heroinism; Loving heroinism; Performing heroisism; Educating heroinism; and Metaphors)

What I take from this book is basically a brief history of (mostly early) women authors and their determination to tell the story of women on "their own terms"; why they did it, put in the context of the times and cultures in which they did it, and what (and who) they managed to create when they put pen to paper.

As a layperson/casual observer to the world of (women's) literature, I found the book both easy to read and extremely entertaining.

[Fred Dameron · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like literature and want to learn more about women writers in particular, at least stylistically, this is a great read. It will take you past the most common writers and their works. Bronte, Wollstonecraft, Jane Austen, George Sand. There are more women who wrote and the discussion of their works and how they have impacted literature is a Wonderfull make you think read.

[Whitney Borup · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish I could make a career out of writing criticism like this. Context and biography based with brilliant passages of close reading. Meant for a wide readerships without sacrificing complexity.

[NVL · Rating 5 out of 5]

So good, I read it several times...in my teens, twenties and thirties

[Rita · Rating 4 out of 5]

How had I missed knowing about this book all these years since 1978??
Wide-ranging study in terms of books and authors covered, as well as themes discussed. HIghly readable! not at all dry and boring.

What books were 19th century authors reading before they started writing their famous novels? for example Madame de Stael [Corinne 1807], Fanny Burney and others I had not heard of before.

I read this book off and on for a year, before getting it all read. It would bear re-reading for sure! Wish I had read the chapter on Corinne before editing Tomoko's dissertation!

Moers gives so much context for the various writers and novels, and deals with how women could afford to write, whether they could make a living from it, how society looked upon them.

Moers jolted me by suggesting that the novel would not have to be such a popular literary form/genre. It's in a way a fluke that it has been so, the past 100 - 150 years. But before that it had been plays. And we know in Turkey it is or was always poetry. I never questioned the dominance of the novel before! Just took it for granted. Well, it seems gradually to be changing today -- memoirs have gained in popularity.

I struggle to understand her [invented] term Heroinism, very important in her book. "Loving heroinism -- the challenge to tell the woman's side of the love story in her own words" p 244. And the letter was the first form used to express the woman's experience of love, long before the novel came into fashion.

Then there is her term "performing heroinism", for which I cannot now locate a definition. Mme de Stael adn her novel play a prominent role in this chapter. "Corinne stand alone in Mme de Stael's oeuvre, in its silliness as in its enormous influence upon literary women. For them , the myth of Corinne persisted as both inspiration and warning: it is the fantasy of the performing heroine." And she goes on to quote several later authors praising the novel Corinne and how much it meant to them.

[Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Found on the shelves at SUNY Geneseo's Milne Library when I was somehow able to borrow books from there. Cracked my mind open. Made me read, and re-read, _Jane Eyre_. It's probably time to revisit it.

[Paulyne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found it an illuminating book, and I loved the style she used to write it. Anyone interested in the topic should absolutely read it!

[Catherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant book. I still find myself talking about it, recommending it and quoting from years after I read it.

[fee · Rating 4 out of 5]

i swear if I read anything more about Anne Radcliffe then I might cry