The Routledge Companion to Romantic Women Writers overviews critical reception for Romantic women
writers from their earliest periodical reviews through the most current scholarship and directs users to avenues of future research. It is divided into two parts.
The first section offers topical discussions on the status of provincial poets, on women’s engagement in children’s literature, the relation of women writers to their religious backgrounds, the historical backgrounds to women’s orientalism, and their engagement in debates on slavery and abolition.
The second part surveys the life and careers of individual women – some 47 in all with sections for biography, biographical resources, works, modern editions, archival holdings, critical reception, and avenues for further research. The final sections of each essay offer further guidance for researchers, including “Signatures” under which the author published, and a “List of Works” accompanied, whenever possible, with contemporary prices and publishing formats. To facilitate research, a robust “Works Cited” includes all texts mentioned or quoted in the essay.
Introduction Part I. Multi-Author Surveys Chapter 1: Children and Children’s Literature Donelle Ruwe Chapter 2: Women and Christianity Patricia Michaelson and Sarah E. Moore Chapter 3: Jewish Women Writers Robin Hammerman Chapter 4: Orientalism and British Women Writers Joey S. Kim Chapter 5: British Women and Provincial Poetry Stephen Behrendt Chapter 6: Slavery and Abolition Srividhya Swaminathan Part 2: Author Essays Chapter 7: Lucy Aikin (1781-1864) Luke A. Iantorno and Catherine S. Blackwell Chapter 8: Jane Austen (1775-1817) Katie Halsey Chapter 9: Joanna Baillie (1762-1851) Ken A. Bugajski Chapter 10: Anne Bannerman (c. 1780-1829) Matthew Heilman Chapter 11: Anna Laetitia Barbauld née Aikin (1743–1825) Kelly Battles Chapter 12: Lady Anne Barnard née Lindsay (1750-1825) Gerald Groenewald and Jessica Murray Chapter 13: Charlotte Brooke (c. 1740-1793) Leith Davis Chapter 14: Mary Brunton (1778-1819) Maxine Branagh-Miscampbell Chapter 15: Frances Burney (1752–1840) Lorna Clark Chapter 16: Sarah Harriet Burney (1772–1844) Lorna J. Clark Chapter 17: Jane Cave Winscom (1752 - 1812) Kathleen Béres Rogers Chapter 18: Hannah Cowley (1743-1809) Donna Waldron Chapter 19: Ann Batten Cristall (c. 1769–1848) Alec Jordan Chapter 20: Charlotte Dacre (ca. 1772-1825) Jeffrey Cass Chapter 21: Catherine Ann Dorset née Turner (circa 1750-after 1816) Michelle Beissel Heath Chapter 22: Maria Edgeworth (1768-1849) Deborah Weiss Chapter 23: Ellenor Fenn née Frere (1744–1813) Taylor Walle Chapter 24: Eliza Fenwick née Jaco (1766-1840) Jonas Cope Chapter 25: Susan Edmonstone Ferrier (1782-1854) Andrew Monnickendam Chapter 26: Anne Macvicar Grant (1755-1838) Pam Perkins Chapter 27: Elizabeth Hamilton (1756-1816) Angela Rehbein Chapter 28: Felicia Dorothea Hemans née Browne (1793-1835) Nanora Sweet Chapter 29: Elizabeth Inchbald (née Simpson) (1753-1821) Ben P. Robertson Chapter 30: Lady Caroline Lamb née Ponsonby (1785-1828) Leigh Wetherall Dickson Chapter 31: Mary Lamb (1764 – 1847) Liora Selinger Chapter 32: Catharine Macaulay (1731-91) Megan Cole Chapter 33: Elizabeth Allen Meeke (1761-1826?) Miles A. Kimball Chapter 34: Mary Russell Mitford (1787–1855) Elisa Beshero-Bondar Chapter 35: Hannah More (1745-1833) Kerri Andrews Chapter 36: Amelia Alderson Opie (1769-1853) Sarah R. Morrison Chapter 37: Sydney Owenson, Lady Morgan (1783?-1859) Julie Donovan Chapter 38: Hester Lynch Piozzi (1741-1821) Lisa Berglund Chapter 39: Anna Maria Porter (1778–1832) Thomas McLean Chapter 40: Jane Porter (1775–1850) Thomas McLean Chapter 41: Ann Radcliffe née Ward (1764-1823) Courtney Yule and Catherine S. Blackwell Chapter 42: Mary Robinson née Darby (1757–1800) E. Leigh Bonds Chapter 43: Anna Seward (1742–1809) Catherine S. Blackwell Chapter 44: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, née Godwin (1797–1851) Nora Crook and Lisa Vargo Chapter 45: Mary Martha Sherwood (1775–1851) Megan A. Norcia and Kelly Yessin Chapter 46: Charlotte Turner Smith (1749-1806) Shannon Elayne Ann Weston and Joseph Morrissey Chapter 47: Joanna Southcott (or Southcote) (1750–1814) Erin M. Goss Chapter 48: Mary Tighe (1772-1810) Harriet Kramer Linkin Chapter 49: Jane West (1758-1852) Angela Rehbein and Megan Woodworth with Carlene N. Bermann Chapter 50: Helen Maria Williams (1759-1827) Luke A. Iantorno and Catherine S. Blackwell Chapter 51: Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) Enit Karafili Steiner and Carlene Bermann Chapter 52: Dorothy Wordsworth (1771・1855) Jessica Fay Chapter 53: Ann Yearsley [née Cromartie] (1753-1806) Kerri Andrews
Ann R. Hawkins, assistant provost for graduate education and research at the State University of New York’s System Administration, specializes in book history and textual criticism of the transatlantic nineteenth century. She has published scholarly editions of Romantic Women Writers Reviewed, 1788–1792 (9 vols) and of three Silver Fork novels; edited Teaching Bibliography, Book History, and Textual Criticism; and co‐edited Women Writers and the Artifacts of Celebrity, and Playing Games in Nineteenth-Century Britain and America. She serves as series co‐editor for SUNY Press’s History of Books, Publishing, and the Book Trades. As Rachael Miles, she writes award‐winning historical romance. Catherine S. Blackwell researches long-nineteenth-century transatlantic literature, material culture, and legal artifacts, and works as an editorial coordinator for SUNY Press. She has published a scholarly edition of the Anna Seward–Joseph Weston debate from The Gentleman’s Magazine and on British and American women writers, including Louisa May Alcott. In addition to editing the Gentleman’s Magazine chapters in Romantic Women Writers Reviewed, she is associate editor of the digital Victorian Women Writers Reviewed project and co-editor of the 2021 Playing Games in Nineteenth-Century Britain and America. A former paralegal, she is currently researching criminal-conversation lawsuits and related publications. E. Leigh Bonds, associate professor and digital humanities librarian at The Ohio State University, holds a PhD with specialization in nineteenth-century British literature and book history. In addition to co-editing this volume, she edited the Town and Country Magazine chapters in Romantic Women Writers Reviewed, published articles on Mary Robinson’s censure of gaming and periodical puffing of Walsingham, and co-curated exhibitions of Romantic works. Her role at Ohio State involves consultations, collaborations, and instruction to support digital humanities approaches in research and teaching, and leading the campus digital humanities community. Her current research projects focus on Robinson’s literary celebrity, pseudonymous signatures, and publishing history.
