Book Review: Why She Wrote

 

Why She Wrote

A Graphic History of the Lives, Inspiration, and Influence Behind the Pens of Classic Women Writers

by Hannah K. Chapman and Lauren Burke, Illustrated by Kaley Bales

Chronicle Books 

 Biographies & Memoirs  |  Comics & Graphic Novels  |  History 

Pub Date 20 Apr 2021 

I am reviewing a copy of Why She Wrote through Chronicle books and Netgalley:

Horace Walpole may have invented the gothic novel,genre with his novel The Castle of Otranto, but it was Ann Radcliffe who became the mother of the Gothic novel influencing authors such as Jane Austen, Mary Shelley and the Bronte sisters with novels such as The Mysteries of Udolpho.

Mary Shelley became a legend, A woman who was so goth, she carried around her dead husband heart until the day he died and created a monster named Frankenstein as well as a whole new literary genre.  Before she became a brand though she was a budding writer living in the shadow of her famous parents Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin.  Mary never knew her Mother, she had died giving birth to Mary, but she got to know her Mother through the pages of the books her Mother had written.  Mary did not receive a formal education but was tutored by her father.

Ann Radcliffe born Ann Ward on July.9.1964 in London, a few years later the family would move to Bath.  Ann was middle class and well read, and would marry Oxford graduate William Radcliffe.  William worked late into the night as an editor as well as part time owner of the newspaper The English Chronicle.  Ann wrote poetry, romance and gothic fiction which she read to him when he returned home.Her first novel The Castle of Athlin and Dunbayne a romance set in the Scottish Highlands was published in 1789 to moderate success.  Her third book The Romance in the Forest  was published in 1791 and would propel her ti fame.

Charolette Bronte is known as the author of Jane Eyre  today, but in 1849 she was Cureer Bell a mysterious unknown author with a debut novel that was shocking, and a woman the London Literatti were dying to meet. 

Frances Burney was called the Mother of English fiction.  She was born in 1752, her father was the prominent music historian Charles Burney, her Mother was Esther Sleepe Burney.  Despite the fact that Charles had academic credentials Burney’s education was sadly neglected.  At rather age of eight she did not know the alphabet.  But by the time she was ten she had taught herself to write through extensive reading  in her Fathers library, and she entertained herself by writing in her journal.  Burney had completed her first novel Caroline Evelyn when she was fifteen, but burned it along with other writings from her childhood. In 1778 at the age of  twenty seven Burney published her first novel Evelina anonymously.

Jane Austen completed six novels, and saw four of them published in her lifetime.  These four novels, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion had a large cultural impact.

From Mary Wollstonecraft to Frances E Harper, an African American Woman born free in Baltimore Maryland in 1825.  She was sent to live with her maternal aunt and uncle, Henrietta and William Watkins, Reverend Watkins was a renowned abolitionist and speaker who educated his young niece at the academy of negro youth.  Under his guidance she published her first anti slavery piece at the age of fourteen.  She would also become an advocate for women’s rights. 

Alice Dunbar Nelson has an awe inspiring resume, she was a well known figure during the Harlem Renaissance as well as a poet, a short story writer and a journalist she was also an educator.   She was a sought after speaker who fought for the rights of African Americans and Women.  She had been born in New Orleans in 1875, just ten years after the civil war.  

This compelling collection features eighteen women authors from Louisa May Alcott, to Beatrix Potter Jane Austen, Louisa May Alcott, Alice Dunbar Nelson, Anne Lister, and more—and asks a simple question: in a time when being a woman writer often meant being undervalued, overlooked, or pigeonholed, why did she write?

Learn about women writers from the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, from familiar favorites to those who have undeservedly fallen into obscurity, and their often untold histories.

If you are looking for an informative as well as fun.

This unique graphic novel covers the life of women authors, spanning three centuries.

I give Why She Wrote five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!