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A secret sisterhood, the hidden friendships of Austen, Bronte, Eliot and Woolf, Emily Midorikawa and Emma Claire Sweeney ; foreword by Margaret Atwood

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 275-309) and index

contains biographical information

platesillustrationsportraits

index present

non fiction

A secret sisterhood

bibliography

Emily Midorikawa and Emma Claire Sweeney ; foreword by Margaret Atwood

the hidden friendships of Austen, Bronte, Eliot and Woolf

Examines the friendships between Jane Austen and one of the family servants, playwright Anne Sharp; the daring feminist author Mary Taylor who shaped the work of Charlotte Bronte; the seemingly aloof George Eliot and the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe; and Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield, most often portrayed as bitter foes, but who in fact enjoyed a complex friendship fired by an underlying erotic charge through letters and diaries which have never been published before, the book resurrects these hitherto forgotten stories of female friendships that were sometimes illicit, scandalous and volatile; sometimes supportive, radical or inspiring; but always, until now, tantalisingly consigned to the shadows

Pt. 1: Jane Austen and Anne Sharp -- ch. 1 A Circle of Single Women -- ch. 2 Rebellion Behind Closed Doors -- ch. 3 Closing Ranks -- pt. 2: Charlotte Bronte and Mary Taylor -- ch. 4 Three's A Crowd -- ch. 5 Two Adventurous Spirits -- ch. 6 One Great Myth -- pt. 3: George Eliot and Harriet Beecher Stowe -- ch. 7 The Stuff of Legend -- ch. 8 The Spectre of Scandal -- ch. 9 An Act of Betrayal -- pt. 4 Katherine Mansfield and Virginia Woolf -- ch. 10 Friends or Foes? -- ch. 11 Cat and Mouse -- ch. 12 Life and Death

adult