English Women of Letters

Julia Kavanagh (1824–1877) published English Women of Letters in two volumes in 1862. The work, which formed a pair with French Women of Letters (1862), traces the contribution of English women writers, from the seventeenth century to the nineteenth, to the development of the modern novel. Volume 2 contains brief biographical sketches and evaluations of the major works of five important woman writers: Elizabeth Inchbald (1753–1821) and A Simple Story; Maria Edgeworth (1767–1849) and Castle Rackrent, Belinda and Tales of Fasionable Life; Jane Austen (1775–1817) and her six major novels; Amelia Opie (1769–1853) and Father and Daughter and Adeline Mowbray; and Lady Morgan (c.1776–1859) and The Wild Irish Girl and O'Donnel. This important work brought to attention in the Victorian mind the importance of these writers. It has served for many generations of English literature students as a biographical companion to women writers.