Amy Reads the Week (of March 2nd, 2007)

Super-Spectacular Women’s History Month Edition #1!

As I’m sure you’ve figured out by now, Gentle Reader, I read books for a living. Some of them are old and dusty; some of them bright and shiny and new. That is to say, my area of specialization is Victorian literature, and one of my sub-interests is popular culture. I do lots of work on the first, and some fun work on the second, and sometimes, I even talk about the intersections between the two. It happens a lot more than you would expect.

For example, I believe that popular culture, as we know it, really got its start in the nineteenth century. Writers like Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins were so popular that their works would sell out before they even hit the shores in America, and writers like George Eliot, Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte and Elizabeth Gaskell really cemented women’s role in a profession heretofore associated, mainly, with men: writing. While women always have written—let us ask Hawthorne how he felt about the “damned mob of scribbling women”—they didn’t always have the opportunity to make a true profession out of it, or even, to be considered professional writers. What pioneers like Aphra Behn, Jane Austen, Maria Edgeworth, et al did was open a doorway for Western women to make their livelihoods by writing the wacky newly popularized form, the novel.

But further, the nineteenth century allowed not only for professionalization of novel writing for women, it also allowed for a proliferation of genre writing as well. With the nineteenth century, we see the invention—or rediscovery—of such genre forms as the Gothic (Wuthering Heights), the Romance (Emma), Science Fiction (Frankenstein), Thriller (Lady Audley’s Secret), the list goes on and on. Two things go hand in hand at this point: the female writing public, and the female reading public. With the rise of the middle class comes the rise of leisure time, particularly for women; with the rise of leisure time comes, more often than not, time for reading. And, of course, with the rise of genre comes the rise of popular culture.

So many other things add to this mix: standardized education for both sexes and all classes, mass production of consumer goods, the department store, women’s access to the public sphere (partially in thanks to the department store), advertisement campaigns, magazines geared specifically towards interests and/or towards women, the list goes on and on. But popular culture, while existing prior to the nineteenth century, gets its firm footing in the 1800s.

In celebration of this reading-and-writing “damned mob of scribbling women,” I offer you a list of my Top Seven Greatest Genre Writers of All Time—one for every day that I Read the Week, of course! Novelists only, of course, genre writers only, of course, spanning the 18^th-21^st centuries.

In no particular order:

1) Connie Willis (science fiction) – it seems only fair to talk about Connie Willis’s work not only as “science fiction,” but also as “fiction about science.” Ms. Willis is, in fact, My Favorite Living Writer, and one of my Favorite Writers Of All Time. She shares the list with Emily Bronte, Elizabeth Gaskell, and Jane Austen, so that is, indeed, saying a lot. Her work is funny and brutal and witty and perfect, all at the same time.
Recommended Reading: To Say Nothing of the Dog, Bellwether

2) Dorothy Sayers (mystery) – I adore Ms. Christie, too, of course, but Ms. Sayers really creates more likeable—and loveable—characters. Lord Peter Wimsey and Ms. Harriet Vane, once they unite as a sleuthing team, are unstoppable. The humor is dry, the prose fun, and the stories never bore.
Recommended Reading: Strong Poison, Gaudy Night

3) Jane Austen (romance, social novels) – Any list of great novelists would be remiss without Ms. Austen’s presence. Her wit, her dialogue, her memorable characters all make you want to read her books, in bed, with chocolate close at hand. Further, her strong characters belie any belief that women were milk-and-water misses at the turn of the 19^th century.
Recommended Reading: Persuasion, Pride and Prejudice

4) Barbara Michaels (gothic, thriller, mystery) – Also writes as Elizabeth Peters. Ms. Michaels is a powerhouse of a writer, with dozens of books to her name under either of her nom de plumes. Often, her heroines are of the Liberal Arts Persuasion, which makes her novels super-fun, and makes her characters possess interesting methods of solving mysteries. Great reads, with great historical research.
Recommended Reading: Be Buried in the Rain, Shattered Silk

5) Diana Gabaldon (romance, historical fiction) – I read Ms. Gabaldon’s first book, Outlander, when I was fifteen years old, and I haven’t stopped since. Not only does she write one of my favorite fictional conventions, time travel, she also writes amazing characters that live on long after you close the book. I believe that these books are, in large part, responsible for my Scotland obsession.
Recommended Reading: Outlander, then the rest of the series

6) Elizabeth Gaskell (romance, social novels) – Mrs. Gaskell is, without a doubt, my favorite Victorian novelist, and that’s saying a lot from This Humble Author, who has made it her life’s mission to read, teach, and write about Victorian novels! Her prose rivals George Eliot’s, in my opinion, while her storylines and characters are more entrancing than Ms. Charlotte Bronte’s.
Recommended Reading: Cranford, Wives and Daughters

7) Charlaine Harris (mystery, supernatural) – Ms. Harris is perhaps most famous for her Sookie Stackhouse series, which follows a telepathic barmaid from rural Louisiana through her trials and tribulations in the newly-revealed supernatural world surrounding her. While this series is loads of fun, Ms. Harris also has several other series under her belt involving amateur sleuths that are, perhaps, even smarter than the Stackhouse series.
Recommended Reading: Shakespeare’s Trollop, Dead Until Dark