Not Just Jane: Rediscovering Seven Amazing Women Writers Who Transformed British Literature

by Shelley DeWees

Overview

“Not Just Jane restores seven of England’s most fascinating and subversive literary voices to their rightful places in history. Shelley DeWees tells each woman writer’s story with wit, passion, and an astute understanding of the society in which she lived and wrote.”

—Dr. Amanda Foreman, New York Times bestselling author of Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire

Jane Austen and the Brontës endure as British literature’s leading ladies (and for good reason)—but were these reclusive parsons’ daughters really the only writing women of their day? A feminist history of literary Britain, this witty, fascinating nonfiction debut explores the extraordinary lives and work of seven long-forgotten authoresses, and asks: Why did their considerable fame and influence, and a vibrant culture of female creativity, fade away? And what are we missing because of it?

You’ve likely read at least one Jane Austen novel (or at least seen a film one). Chances are you’ve also read Jane Eyre; if you were an exceptionally moody teenager, you might have even read Wuthering Heights. English majors might add George Eliot or Virginia Woolf to this list…but then the trail ends. Were there truly so few women writing anything of note during late 18th and 19th century Britain?

In Not Just Jane, Shelley DeWees weaves history, biography, and critical analysis into a rip-roaring narrative of the nation’s fabulous, yet mostly forgotten, female literary heritage. As the country, and women’s roles within it, evolved, so did the publishing industry, driving legions of ladies to pick up their pens and hit the parchment. Focusing on the creative contributions and personal stories of seven astonishing women, among them pioneers of detective fiction and the modern fantasy novel, DeWees assembles a riveting, intimate, and ruthlessly unromanticized portrait of female life—and the literary landscape—during this era. In doing so, she comes closer to understanding how a society could forget so many of these women, who all enjoyed success, critical acclaim, and a fair amount of notoriety during their time, and realizes why, now more than ever, it’s vital that we remember.

Rediscover Charlotte Turner Smith, Helen Maria Williams, Mary Robinson, Catherine Crowe, Sara Coleridge, Dinah Mulock Craik, and Mary Elizabeth Braddon.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062394620
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	10/25/2016
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	699,375
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Shelley DeWees has a graduate degree in ethnomusicology, several tattoos, and a documented obsession with British literature. Her writing has appeared in Austenprose, Jane Austen’s World, and Jane Austen Today, and after time spent teaching in Korea she recently moved back to Minneapolis with her husband.

Editorial Reviews

05/16/2016
DeWees’s biographical assessment of seven English women authors of the 18th and 19th centuries marks an enthusiastic, if uneven, addition to the ongoing project of recovering “lost” women writers and addressing the gender imbalance in English literature. She profiles Charlotte Turner Smith, Helena Maria Williams, Mary Robinson, Catherine Crowe, Sara Coleridge (daughter of Samuel Taylor Coleridge), Dinah Mulcock Craik, and Mary Elizabeth Braddon. Their stories are complex, involving dissolute husbands, illness, opium, and the French Revolution. The best chapter belongs to Robinson, who had a lively career on the stage; gained the patronage of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire; and caught the eye of the Prince of Wales. DeWees can be almost too enthusiastic a tour guide, given to twee salutations to her “dear reader,” and her write-ups are light on substantive critique. Nonetheless, she does important work in challenging the notion of canon, pointing out that the advent of digital libraries has made many of these lesser-known works easily accessible. That accessibility, combined with the awareness spurred by books like DeWees’s, may be the best step of all toward redressing the literary canon’s historical imbalance. Agent: Noah Ballard, Curtis Brown. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

An industrious work by an adoring reader…. Her converting zeal is apparent on every page, holding up passages of poems and novels to tempt us. With verve and brio, she imagines her modern self into her subjects’ minds.” — Wall Street Journal

“Not Just Jane restores seven of England’s most fascinating and subversive literary voices to their rightful places in history. Shelley DeWees tells each woman writer’s story with wit, passion, and an astute understanding of the society in which she lived and wrote.” — Dr. Amanda Foreman, New York Times bestselling author of Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire and creator of docuseries The Ascent of Woman

“Not merely delightful nonfiction. It’s a moving and heartfelt tribute to seven forgotten literary foremothers whose works were widely admired and just as widely consigned to moldering oblivion. What we need are many more books in the spirit of Not Just Jane.” — Lyndsay Faye, author of Jane Steele

“Shelley DeWees has admirably filled in the gaps for us, introducing us to the many daring, exciting women writers out there beyond Austen, the Brontës, Eliot, and Woolf. If you want to know not only what women were up against in the pre-modern era but also how women turned to the pen as a source of liberation, then this is the book for you.” — Anne Boyd Rioux, author of Constance Fenimore Wilson: Portrait of a Lady Novelist

“I found Not Just Jane delightfully engaging. DeWees emerges as the Indiana Jones of literary archeology, and we are forever in her debt.” — Laurel Ann Nattress, editor of Jane Austen Made Me Do It and Austenprose.com

“Second Wave feminism reclaimed long-forgotten late 18th and early 19th century ‘authoresses’, but they still largely remain unknown outside the academic community. Now Shelley DeWees’s readable and engaging study of seven of the best introduces them to a wider audience. They deserve it.” — Professor Janet Todd, OBE, editor of The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Jane Austen

“Reveal[s] the interesting lives and strong characters of these oft-forgotten writers…. This book succeeds at making readers aware of the gaps in our knowledge of British literature…planting the seed that there are many treasures out there waiting for a second chance. — Kirkus Reviews

“Masterfully weaves a tale of history, culture, and writing.… Not Just Jane is a gem, a rediscovery of female perseverance in a patriarchal society, and shows how deftly, artfully, and successfully female writers can navigate their circumstances.” — Los Angeles Review of Books

“Together, the essays work to broaden our understanding of literary history.” — Book Riot, “20 Great Essay Collections from 2016”

“DeWees’s biographical assessment of seven English women authors of the 18th and 19th centuries marks an enthusiastic…addition to the ongoing project of recovering ‘lost’ women writers…. She does important work in challenging the notion of canon.” — Publishers Weekly

“A true delight, both for its honorable mission and for its eloquent execution.” — Chronic Bibliophilia

“Fun.... Lovers of Austen’s books and film adaptations of her work will find much to enjoy in this informative overview of authors.” — Library Journal

“Interweaving the fascinating stories…and the social, cultural, and economic realities of their times, an insightful group portrait of these groundbreaking women emerges. Lively…. An important contribution to the scholarship of women’s literature.” — Booklist

From the Publisher

Shelley DeWees has admirably filled in the gaps for us, introducing us to the many daring, exciting women writers out there beyond Austen, the Brontës, Eliot, and Woolf. If you want to know not only what women were up against in the pre-modern era but also how women turned to the pen as a source of liberation, then this is the book for you.

Anne Boyd Rioux

Masterfully weaves a tale of history, culture, and writing.… Not Just Jane is a gem, a rediscovery of female perseverance in a patriarchal society, and shows how deftly, artfully, and successfully female writers can navigate their circumstances.

Los Angeles Review of Books

Not Just Jane restores seven of England’s most fascinating and subversive literary voices to their rightful places in history. Shelley DeWees tells each woman writer’s story with wit, passion, and an astute understanding of the society in which she lived and wrote.

Dr. Amanda Foreman

Together, the essays work to broaden our understanding of literary history.

Book Riot

An industrious work by an adoring reader…. Her converting zeal is apparent on every page, holding up passages of poems and novels to tempt us. With verve and brio, she imagines her modern self into her subjects’ minds.

Wall Street Journal

Second Wave feminism reclaimed long-forgotten late 18th and early 19th century ‘authoresses’, but they still largely remain unknown outside the academic community. Now Shelley DeWees’s readable and engaging study of seven of the best introduces them to a wider audience. They deserve it.

Professor Janet Todd

Not merely delightful nonfiction. It’s a moving and heartfelt tribute to seven forgotten literary foremothers whose works were widely admired and just as widely consigned to moldering oblivion. What we need are many more books in the spirit of Not Just Jane.

Lyndsay Faye

I found Not Just Jane delightfully engaging. DeWees emerges as the Indiana Jones of literary archeology, and we are forever in her debt.

Laurel Ann Nattress

A true delight, both for its honorable mission and for its eloquent execution.

Chronic Bibliophilia

Interweaving the fascinating stories…and the social, cultural, and economic realities of their times, an insightful group portrait of these groundbreaking women emerges. Lively…. An important contribution to the scholarship of women’s literature.

Booklist

Interweaving the fascinating stories…and the social, cultural, and economic realities of their times, an insightful group portrait of these groundbreaking women emerges. Lively…. An important contribution to the scholarship of women’s literature.

Booklist

An industrious work by an adoring reader…. Her converting zeal is apparent on every page, holding up passages of poems and novels to tempt us. With verve and brio, she imagines her modern self into her subjects’ minds.

Wall Street Journal

06/01/2016
First-time author DeWees here illuminates the stories of Charlotte Turner Smith, Helen Maria Williams, Mary Robinson, Catherine Crowe, Sara Coleridge, Dinah Mulock Craik, and Mary Elizabeth Braddon, so that these women can take their place alongside Jane Austen in readers' minds. DeWees positions herself as a fan of Austen, which lends a fun and breezy approach. For readers with a more academic bent, the use of "Jane" rather than "Austen" may seem reductive, and phrases such as "our forgotten ladies of literature," and their predecessors a "cadre of female scribblers," minimize decades of scholarship that has recuperated earlier women writers to their rightful status. Furthermore, DeWees suggests that women lacked a genre model and mentions the masculine picaresque style of Henry Fielding's Tom Jones yet neglects to discuss Samuel Richardson's Pamela, which indeed provided a template for women's domestic fiction. VERDICT Lovers of Austen's books and film adaptations of her work will find much to enjoy in this informative overview of authors in conversation with Austen. Unfortunately, DeWees misses an opportunity to showcase the complex, multifarious dialogs that Austen and her successors inherited, participated in, and challenged.—Emily Bowles, Homeless Connections, Appleton, WI

Library Journal

Sept. 8, 2016
Debut author DeWees brings back to life seven Victorian women writers with the hope of proving them worthy of shelf space alongside Austen and the Brontës.The British women of this book lived from the mid-1700s to the late 1800s, a time when society expected them to find husbands and not do much else. But these were no ordinary women; all had "broad disregard for convention…an unabashed sense of self-worth.” Some wrote because their situations forced them to, after bad marriages left them unsupported (Charlotte Turner Smith). Others did it because they were compelled by their beliefs, whether political or personal, in protest against the negative connotations of "spinsterhood.” Mary Elizabeth Braddon wrote in search of a successful career and, despite the rage of critics, made a fortune. Catherine Crowe penned one of the first detective novels complete with a “resourceful, industrious, lionhearted” female lead. Sara Coleridge wrote Phantasmion, considered by some as the first fairy-tale novel in English. What DeWees does best is reveal the interesting lives and strong characters of these oft-forgotten writers, proving to readers that there were many more successful Victorian women writers than the handful that populate syllabi. The most memorable chapters belong to Mary Robinson, who left a loveless marriage to become a commanding actress and mistress to the Prince of Wales, using her fame to become a definitive cultural voice of her time, and to Coleridge, whose gripping story reveals a constant struggle against the binding duties of motherhood and marriage. Virginia Woolf summed up Coleridge’s tragedy well: “She meant to write her life. But she was interrupted.” While some chapters blend together and the accomplishments become indistinguishable, this book succeeds at making readers aware of the gaps in our knowledge of British literature. Read this not as serious literary criticism but as an appreciation of writers who deserve to be remembered. If DeWees’ goal is to encourage “a bookshelf full of new titles,” she succeeds in planting the seed that there are many treasures out there waiting for a second chance.

Kirkus Review