Woman to Woman

Reviews / Votes

Women in history have generally been studied in terms of the men in their lives. In this insightful collection of essays, Williams (literature, University of Reading), music librarian Escott and independent scholar Duckling and their contributors demonstrate that women's interactions among themselves were, if anything, even more important to their lives. The essays discuss familial connections between women, the bonding within societies of women: authors, prostitutes and religious groups and the overlapping subject of "adventurous women". The cases are all from the long eighteenth century, a time better documented than previous eras. The exception is the closing article of the influence of the history of Queen Boadicea, a model for Queen Elizabeth I. Women such as Emma Hamilton are seen as individuals and others, normally studied in isolation, are seen in the context of friends and family. This volume is appropriately dedicated to the memory of eighteenth century scholar, Mary Waldron. * Book News, Inc. * Woman to Woman, a stimulating multidisciplinary collection of essays (fittingly, a collaborative project of the London-based Women's Studies Group 1558-1837), seeks to provide a more detailed and nuanced picture of benevolent and productive female sociability....The main strength of this collection is its wealth of new primary material. * Times Literary Supplement * Woman to Woman offers new ways of thinking about female companionship in the long eighteenth century. In exploring relationships between women in the public sphere and the private sphere, and in looking at the lives of women from varying social classes, political backgrounds, and religions, this collection resist popularized notions of female collaboration in the eighteenth century-women were not mindless or vicious towards one another. Rather, women were capable of cooperative work and mutual benefit. Woman to Woman provides insight into diverse primary material and its topics invite further research into other successful collaborations between women. * The Eighteenth-Century Intelligencer * The empowering effect of intellectual and literary exchange for women is further explored by [a] collection of essays: Woman to Woman: Female Negotiations During the Long Eighteenth Century, edited by Carolyn D. Williams, Angela Escott, and Louise Duckling...Woman to Woman reveals a neglected history of women's co-operative activity, which is key to the study of literary sociability in the period. * The Year's Work In English Studies *