Eve Bites Back: An Alternative History of English Literature

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Having said that, the chapter on Montegu is by far the richest and most exuberant. Montegu was married to a diplomat, traveled to the Ottoman Empire, learned Turkish, and wrote voluminous letters and travelogues, none of which were published in her lifetime. “She writes of wolves and fashions, war and pheasants. Trivial social bitching jostled with earnest philosophical analysis,” explains Beer. She was, the author contends, “setting herself up in explicit competition with the male literary establishment, past and present.”

Anna noted that a running theme throughout her book is this silence, and a self-imposed silence. That it’s our job now to listen to these silences and look for clues. Because we have access to so many books written by women nowadays, it can be easy to think domains like literature are “inclusive enough”. However, all forms of misogyny and sexism are still present.

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Thank you for taking that on board. If you are very good, we might allow you to write, but only about certain things and in certain ways and for certain people. But dismantling the patriarchy can’t be done alone, and all of these authors found male allies to get their work into print. Kempe had scribes; Austen and Bradstreet had fathers and brothers (and, in Bradstreet’s case, a husband) to champion them; Braddon had the support of her husband and publisher. We look forward to welcoming you to a Champagne Drinks Reception on Friday 22 September to launch the weekend, which includes our annual Gaudy Dinner on Saturday 23 September. Booking is now open for both these events. Beer uses their individual stories to tell a larger truth about literary history and how it pertains to women. There are running threads of patriarchal oppression, obviously, but specifically the spread of religious fervour and sexual panic. To sell your mind was, and is to some, the same as selling your body and the links between the aggressive response to female writers and sex workers was equally interesting and disturbing. Clearly, some of these authors are more well known to us today than others, but even someone as famous as Jane Austen is only a blinding success in hindsight. Her legacy was hard fought, well earned, and never guaranteed. The next essay is about Aemilia Lanyer, the illegitimate daughter of an Elizabethan court musician, who was subsequently educated by Katheryn Parr. She was the first woman to seek status as a professional author. She also wrote for women. Her poem “Salve Deux Rex Judaeorum,” now considered an important Renaissance text, re-imagines Genesis in Eve’s defense. Eve might’ve eaten the apple, but Jesus was betrayed by men.

Because, as a woman, if you are given the gift of education, your literacy is not a means of opening doors to different ways of being, but designed to prepare you better for your decreed role in life. Your task is to provide moral guidance, not to entertain, since for you to provide pleasure to your reader would make you little more than a courtesan. If you do have to write about sex and desire, then bear in mind that religious and literary traditions link women’s sexuality to subjection rather than authority.The Linton Lecture will be followed by a drinks reception for event speakers, OCLW Linton Friends, OCLW Visiting Scholars and invited guests. Unfortunately, when we get to the essay on Anne Bradstreet, Eve begins to lose her bite. Perhaps Beer wrote this chapter to maintain a steady chronology. But I don’t see how Bradstreet fits the book’s premise. In fact, Beer suggests that Bradstreet’s poetry might have been published — with the help of her father, husband, and brother-in-law — to counter the scandalous behavior of her sister Sarah, a London preacher. “Why should Bradstreet do our feminist heavy lifting,” Beer asks. To which I reply, tell us more about Sarah!

Over the weekend of 22 – 24 September 2023 we will once again host our Meeting Minds Global series of events for Kellogg and Oxford alumni.Alongside her work as a biographer, Anna teaches English Literature and Creative Writing to undergraduates and postgraduates; contributes to the Oxford Student Texts series for Oxford University Press; and makes regular lecture and media appearances. She gives the societal construct, the current views/constraints on women (and women writers) for each of the women in the century in which they lived. She looks at them through our concerns today: sexism, racism, slavery, religious persecution, and explains their stance in the context of their society. She doesn't dismiss or excuse; but explains. That we know about Montegu at all is owed to a trip she took to Rotterdam in her 70s, while dying of cancer. There, she handed over her papers to an evangelical Presbyterian minister for safekeeping. They were published after her death in 1763 and “still have the power to charm but also provoke outrage.” Beer admits that she can’t do Montegu’s life justice in one short chapter. I only wish she’d write a whole book about this woman.

Mind you, Beer knows all too well that the desire to be liked and not to come across as self-important is one of the pitfalls of the highly intelligent, educated woman. She describes Montegu in just such a way, imagining her to be like Vice President Kamala Harris, smiling too much because her “desire to please is also rooted in her sex.”Anna Beer investigates the lives and achievements of eight women writers, uncovering a startling and unconventional history of literature