Johnson argues that for about a hundred years, from Fanny Burney to the Brontës, women wrote a kind of novel that men could not, drawing on their own observation of home and society. He studies Burney and Austen in depth and surveys Maria Edgeworth, Susan Ferrier, Mary Brunton and many lesser names, quoting freely and comparing parallel passages.
An engaging 1918 study for readers of Austen who want to meet her predecessors and rivals. Download the free EPUB.