Overview

Anna Beer investigates the lives and achievements of eight women writers, uncovering a startling and unconventional history of literature Warned not to write--and certainly not to bite--these women put pen to paper anyway and wrote themselves into history. From the fourteenth century through to the present day, women who write have been understood as mad, undisciplined, or dangerous. Female writers have always had to find ways to overcome or challenge these beliefs. Some were cautious and discreet, some didn't give a damn, but all lived complex, eventful, and often controversial lives. Eve Bites Back places the female contemporaries of Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Milton center stage in the history of literature in English, uncovering stories of dangerous liaisons and daring adventures. From Julian of Norwich, Margery Kempe, Aemilia Lanyer and Anne Bradstreet, to Aphra Behn, Mary Wortley Montagu, Jane Austen and Mary Elizabeth Braddon, these are the women who dared to write.

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Reviews

A totally absorbing and enlightening tour through the work of eight significant women authors--with one of the funniest introductory chapters ever. -- Sarah Bakewell, author of At the Existentialist Cafe An informative, enthusiastic and rightly enraging tour de force. -- A.L. Kennedy, author of The Little Snake Writing with energy, wit and at times barely suppressed fury, Anna Beer brings to life the struggle to be heard of eight women writers over 500 years...a gripping read. -- David Goodhart, author of Head, Hand, Heart Written with a clear and authoritative voice, this is both a very entertaining and very important book about the many obstacles that women have overcome to be writers. -- Yasmin Kahn, associate professor of history, University of Oxford

Author Information

Anna Beer is a cultural historian and biographer. She is author of Sounds and Sweet Airs: The Forgotten Women of Classical Music and Patriot or Traitor: The Life and Death of Sir Walter Ralegh, as well as biographies of Bess Throckmorton, William Shakespeare, and John Milton. She is a Visiting Fellow at Kellogg College, University of Oxford. Anna Beer is a cultural historian and biographer. She is author of Sounds and Sweet Airs: The Forgotten Women of Classical Music and Patriot or Traitor: The Life and Death of Sir Walter Ralegh, as well as biographies of Bess Throckmorton, William Shakespeare, and John Milton. She is a Visiting Fellow at Kellogg College, University of Oxford.

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