BOOK REVIEW: A Secret Sisterhood. The Literary Friendships of Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, George Eliot and Virginia Woolf by Emily Midorikawa and Emma Claire Sweeney

A Secret Sisterhood. The Literary Friendships of Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, George Eliot and Virginia Woolf by Emily Midorikawa and Emma Claire Sweeney is another collection of focused historical biographies of famous women. (See also my review of What She Ate by Laura Shapiro.) This time, the women are all authors. The theme, or focus, of the biographies is on a particular friendship of each author with another female writer whose literary understanding and support were crucial to the careers of the women studied.

Utilizing newly mined resources including letters and journals, the authors of A Secret Sisterhood explore a specific relationship of each of the four women named in the title as well as the importance of female friendships in general.

Jane Austen befriended her niece’s governess, Anne Sharp, an amateur playwright. Despite the differences in their circumstances and despite chronic illness, Anne was one of Jane Austen’s most steadfast supporters.

Charlotte Brontë had not only her sisters as companions, but also an old school friend, Mary Taylor, whose unconventional life challenged Charlotte to be bolder in her writing and in her life.

George Eliot and Harriet Beecher Stowe were pen pals who supported each other through personal and professional crises. That one surprised me. Moreover, George Eliot seemed to be the more sensitive and generous of the two, which also isn’t what I would’ve expected.

Finally, Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield were rivals as well as friends. They admired one another’s talent and spent very productive time in each other’s company, but they could also be jealous, catty, and back-biting.

Each of the mini-biographies is detailed and interesting. This book is a wonderful introduction to the lives of these writers seen through the lens of their friendships with like-minded women.