Eve Bites Back: An Alternative History of English Literature

Biographer Beer (Patriot or Traitor) goes a long way to undo the “erasure of women’s lives and words” in this zippy history of early English literature. Through vivid portraits of once well-known writers, Beer questions “many of the stories we tell about the lives of women and their work,” kicking things off by taking to task the milestone of being “the first woman” to do something, as such a designation conceals “the important questions: what enabled a woman to be first and how can the first become the second, and then reach a critical mass.” To that end, she traces the road to publication forged by Aemilia Lanyer, who is credited as the first English woman to have a book of poetry printed and who made her way in the same “collaborative, chaotic, creative streets of London” as Shakespeare. Also among those considered are Aphra Behn, who lit the 17th-century theater world on fire by presenting herself “as a young male playwright,” and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, who int he 18th century “conformed to the patrician beliefs of her (very upper) class” with her reluctance to put her name on her work. Beer pulls no punches, and her history is complex, nuanced, and fascinating. This feminist corrective sings. (Nov.)