Remembering the Ladies

"I long to hear that you have declared an independency. And, by the way, in the new code of laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make, I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors." --Abigail Adams to her husband John on March 31, 1776

Alas. For women authors in much of the 19th century, the last thing they wanted to remember was that they were female. Because at that time, it was almost impossible to get published if you were a woman.

Not that there weren't women who published as themselves--we've talked about Ann Radcliffe, and there was Hannah Moore, a poet and writer on religion and Maria Edgeworth, a poet and children's writer. They published under their own names, but most women writers born after them--they were all born in the middle of the 18th century--did not. Jane Austen, first published in 1811 (Sense and Sensibility) and Mary Shelley (her Frankenstein came out in 1818) chose to publish anonymously or semi-anonymously. The intellectually freer 18th century had given way to a more close-minded 19th; despite a woman being on the throne, female authors were looked upon with condescension, if not contempt.

Which is why in 1847 three literary-minded sisters living in Yorkshire decided that if they were going to find publishers for the novels they'd been working on, they needed to find names that weren't quite as feminine sounding as Charlotte, Emily, and Anne. Instead, the authors of Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, and Agnes Grey put the androgynous names Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell on their masterpieces. As Charlotte later wrote, "Averse to personal publicity, we veiled our own names under those of Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell; the ambiguous choice being dictated by a sort of conscientious scruple at assuming Christian names positively masculine, while we did not like to declare ourselves women, because—without at that time suspecting that our mode of writing and thinking was not what is called 'feminine' -- we had a vague impression that authoresses are liable to be looked on with prejudice; we had noticed how critics sometimes use for their chastisement the weapon of personality, and for their reward, a flattery, which is not true praise."

Nor were the Brontes the last to understand the limitations under which they operated. One of the greatest of 19th century novelists, male or female, was Mary Ann Evans...more commonly known as George Eliot.

All of this is to give you a little background for a truly wonderful piece of video I ran across recently...enjoy, and remember the ladies!

Books That Go Bump in the Night, Part 4

She doesn’t look like a revolutionary, does she? Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin had a father who was a radical political philosopher and a mother who was one of England’s first feminists. Today, we would consider her homeschooled, but her “teachers” were the radical thinkers of the times, who flocked to her father’s drawing room. At sixteen she fell in love with the romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, who was one of the flock. As he was married at the time, they ran away to Europe together. They later married when his first wife committed suicide.

In 1816, when she was 18 years old, Mary and Shelley spent the summer on Lake Geneva, Switzerland, with another famous poet and all around bad boy, George Lord Byron; his friend John William Polidori, a physician; and Mary’s stepsister Claire Clairmont. It proved to be an unusually wet summer, and the group spent a lot of time inside around the fire, often reading German ghost stories. Bryon challenged each to write their own ghost story. Polidori penned a short story called The Vampyre, which was immediately attributed to Byron. Mary took the challenge more seriously, however, and her novel, which she published anonymously in 1818, became one of the most iconic stories of all time.

Frankenstein.


It’s been called the first science fiction novel, as it deals with a scientist taking his science a bit too far and playing God to create a man. Mary claimed the story came to her in a vision. Many modern day critics, however, claim Mary wasn’t all that original. Some say she visited Castle Frankenstein on her way to Lake Geneva and read about scientific experiments there. Others claim the book’s hero was modeled a bit too closely on Percy Bysshe Shelley. If so, Mary must have been a bit miffed at him at the time, as the poor scientist is thoroughly tormented for his efforts. In fact, one could wonder whether Mary was rethinking some of her revolutionary ways by this quote from the novel:

“You seek for knowledge and wisdom, as I once did; and I ardently hope that the gratification of your wishes may not be a serpent to sting you, as mine has been.”

Regardless, the book was a huge success. It was reprinted in 1823 and again in 1831, revised and expanded by an older, wiser Mary, who is finally listed as the author. It has gone on to inspire dozens of films and adaptations.

Not bad for a homeschooled revolutionary, eh?