Pen-Portraits of Literary Women is a Victorian anthology presenting biographical sketches of notable women authors, drawing on letters, memoirs, and critical assessments to paint concise pictures of their lives and literary contributions. Works of this kind were common in the nineteenth century as a way of both celebrating literary women and making their stories accessible to a general reading public.
Though the author of this particular compilation is not identified, the volume reflects the period’s growing interest in women’s intellectual achievement. This public-domain collection is now available as a free EPUB download for readers interested in literary biography and women’s history.