Review

General Books

The mid to late eighteenth century is usually presented as a man's world, in politics, military affairs and in the glittering (or in the reality, rather grimy) world of writing and witty conversation dominated by men like Samuel Johnson. If a teacher relied solely on the most famous resource for the literary period, Boswell's Life of Johnson, one would be convinced that it really was a man's preserve of coffeehouses, writer's clubs and sordid adventures in the back alleys of London. Cleverly, Norma Clarke turns this on its ear in a book that uses Dr. Johnson's own opinion, barely represented by Boswell, that women not only inhabited the literary world, they in many ways were essential to it, and worthy of Johnson's patronage, encouragement and friendship. Rather than inserting women into the eighteenth century history, Clarke rather restores them to their place as national celebrities, best-selling authors and figures of important, if neglected, literary position.	1
The book centers on major figures: Elizabeth Carter, whose self-taught classical languages made her exceptional and thus shielded from male patronization; Elizabeth Montague, author, patron and great admirer of Queen Elizabeth I; Charlotte Lennox, the rougher-living, but professional novelist and satirist; Hannah More, the anti-slavery and evangelical writer; and Fanny Burney. However, the book also includes a walk-on cast of women like Eva Garrick, Anne Yeardsley ("Lactilla"), Laeticia Hawkins and Hester Thrale. The careers of these women, treated as a snapshot portrait of their most powerful years in the British literary scene, reveal fascinating themes easily accessible to students and very conducive to discussions of the whole eighteenth century – the construction of celebrity, including dress and exaggerated public behavior, the relationship of many of these women to their fathers, who often saw education for them as a major social advancement, the role of women like Hester Thrale in orchestrating her incapacitated husband's political campaign (certainly a nice way to introduce the power of the aristocratic political hostesses), and the relationship between the theater, politics and the dissemination of information. Clarke tantalizingly brings in hints of larger issues, such as many of the women's insistence on independent incomes and lodgings, their contract disputes with publishers, and their fascinating friendship with Johnson himself, who could be charming or grotesque by turns.	2
This book is ideal reading for undergraduate British literature or history classes, and would make excellent foundation reading for an advanced high school student interested in the writings of the late eighteenth century. Clarke builds in enough hooks to enable students to relate this material to almost any discussion of the period, including the connection between Lennox's Female Quixote and the writings of Jane Austen, the patronage networks of subscription lists for publishers, and the interesting ways in which these women, of different social rank, negotiated their fame. The only real complaint that can be made about this book is that it does not include full biographical information (I wanted to know what happened after the heyday of the bluestockings in Britain, but a generously annotated bibliography will satisfy curious students. Whether used alone or in conjunction with the literary works mentioned, such as Richardson's Clarissa, Fielding's writings, or the women themselves, this is a fine way to put these eighteenth century women back where they belong – on the A-list of authors and notables because Clarke includes enough about the background works to make her points easily understood.	3
Auburn University Margaret Sankey

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