Even though they were the best-selling authors of their times, these women did not get the popularity they rightfully deserved.
Which women writers do you think had a remarkable influence on the literature of the 19th century?
When we talk about the women writers of the 19th century, we talk about the Bronte sisters, George Elliotor Jane Austen. But what about other women writers of those times? You would be surprised to know that there were many other prolific women writers who were as popular as these authors were. So, who were these dynamic women who shook the literary world in the 19th century?Let’s find out.
Maria Edgeworth, who was paid twenty-one hundred pounds for publishing her novel.
She was born in a wealthy household where she was encouraged to get proper education. Not only that, she worked as an assistant with her father and helped him run the estate. It was around 1790s when she published her first book titled Castle Rackrent. Her books were unconventional, popular and her literary fame paralleled that of Byron and Sir Walter Scott. While Jane Austen was struggling to find a publisher for her Mansfield Park, she was paid twenty-one hundred pounds.
Charlotte Riddell, writer who wrote more than 50 novels and became editor and part-owner of St James Magazine.
She started from a humble beginning and started writing to support her family. Her works initially were rejected, but Thomas Cautley published her short stories under the pseudonym F.G Trafford. By the year 1860, she established herself as a successful writer and could charge decent money for her works. She even started publishing under her own name.
Mary Russell Mitford, playwright and writer that didn’t had a rival.
She had friends and fans all over the literary world, including Samuel Coleridge and Elizabeth Barrett-Browning. Her drama, Rienzi’s, sold over 8000 copies all over. Her most famous work is Our Village which has a series of prose sketches. It is said that she was so famous that there was not even a single household in the country that was not talking about these prose sketches.
Anne Radcliffe, also known as the Shakespeare of Romance writers and Queen of Gothic novel.
It is said that Radcliffe was so famous that she outsold every female writer of the 19th century. Her best work is, without a doubt, “The Mysteries of Udolpho”, which was published in 1794. She was encouraged to pursue writing by her journalist husband, William Radcliffe. She was one of the highest-paid writers of her time.
Whose works would you like to read first?
