Since women authors began
publishing they were aware that their books were criticized by a very different
set of criteria than a male authors and thus many women chose to publish either
anonymously or with a male pseudonym.
The Bronte sisters used gender neutral pseudonyms but immediately upon
publication there was a veritable storm of speculation as to their sex. Until critics could determine their sex they
were hesitant to analyse the books in any serious way. Oh but what a hoodoo was made once the gender
was known, how depraved and un-sexed these reclusive sisters became! Emily’s genius is overlooked and instead one
review (which I cannot help but laugh at) goes like this:
“How a human being could have attempted such
a book as the present without committing suicide before he had finished a dozen
chapters, is a mystery. It is a compound of vulgar depravity and unnatural
horror …”
Little wonder that Mary Ann Evans
chose to write as George Eliot, Aurore Dudavant (George Sand), Karen Blixen
(Isak Dinesen). At the same time we can
take a look at the reaction of readers two decades earlier when “Frankenstein” was
published. The author, believed to be a
man, was not trounced on for creating a monster that went about terrorizing the
population. The author had the
foresight, one presumes, to write a foreword that perhaps took some of the
shock out of the story and made the author less depraved. Also there is the
possibility that the influence of Queen Victoria’s prudishness may already have
spread that aura amongst the critics. If
Mary Shelley had revealed herself as the 19 year old girl who wrote this
remarkable novel one wonders what the reaction would have been. Even today I think we can all agree that this
book was a work of genius and quite wonderful coming from such a young person.
"No coward soul is mine,
No trembler in the world's storm-troubles sphere . . ." Emily Bronte
TO BE CONTINUED . . .
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