Women Romantic Poets 1785-1832 Writing In Prose by Jennifer Breen (Everyman Classics)

Jennifer Breen’s “Women Romantic Poets 1785-1832 Writing In Prose” is a literary study that examines the works of female writers during the Romantic era who experimented with prose as a form of artistic expression. The book explores the works of seven women writers: Anna Laetitia Barbauld, Mary Robinson, Mary Wollstonecraft, Charlotte Smith, Ann Radcliffe, Maria Edgeworth, and Jane Austen.

Breen argues that these women writers were not only poets, but also skilled prose writers who used this form to explore complex issues such as gender, politics, and social hierarchies. She examines how their prose works challenged the dominant literary conventions of the time, and how they often used subversive strategies to critique and resist patriarchal structures.

Breen also discusses the various genres and themes that these women writers explored in their prose works, including travel writing, the Gothic, the novel, and the essay. She highlights the unique contributions of each writer and how they each developed their own distinctive styles and themes.

Overall, Breen’s book offers a fresh perspective on the works of women writers during the Romantic era and sheds light on the important role that they played in shaping literary and cultural discourse of the time.