| Dr Johnson enjoyed the company of clever
women. Dr Johnson’s Women explores his relationship with six remarkable
and successful female authors, all of whom he knew well: Elizabeth Carter,
Hannah More, Charlotte Lennox, Hester Thrale, Fanny Burney and Elizabeth
Montagu. It is also an account of the characters and achievements of these
women. It is often assumed that women writers in the eighteenth century
suffered the same restrictions and obstacles that confronted their Victorian
successors. Norma Clarke shows that this was by no means the case. Highlighting
the opportunities available to women with talent in the eighteenth century,
Dr
Johnson’s Women makes clear just how impressive and varied their achievements
were.
‘I dined yesterday at Mrs Garrick’s with
Mrs Carter, Miss Hannah More and Miss Fanny Burney. Three such women are
not to found; I know not where I could find a fourth, except Mrs Lennox,
who is superiour to them all.’ SAMUEL JOHNSON
‘Dr Johnson's Women represents the best kind
of popula history being produced at the moment: scholarly, fluent and supremely human.’
KATHRYN HUGHES, DAILY TELEGRAPH
‘Dr Clarke understands the eighteenth
century -- she has a nice sense of character. Her book is both shrewd
and scholarly.’ ADAM SISMAN, EVENING STANDARD
NORMA CLARKE is the author of Ambitious
Heights: The Jewsbury Sisters, Felicia Hemans and Jane Carlyle.
£19.99: January 2001: 256 pages 18 illustrations:
ISBN 185285 254 2 |
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