A Secret Sisterhood: The Literary Friendships of Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, George Eliot, and Virginia Woolf

Midorikawa (Owl Song at Dawn) and Sweeney, who corun the site SomethingRhymed.com, provide evidence of sustained, collaborative female friendships in the lives of Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, George Eliot, and Virginia Woolf. Extraordinary detective work has uncovered letters pointing to friendships between Austen and Anne Sharp, the governess/playwright who became a trusted friend to the novelist; Brontë and the radical feminist writer Mary Taylor; Eliot and Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin; and Woolf and the younger, more successful (at the time) Katherine Mansfield. In revealing these literary alliances, Midorikawa and Sweeney point out obstacles the novelists faced in trying to have their work recognized. At times, though, there is too much hypothesizing, especially in the case of Austen, since the details of her friendship with Anne are from Austen's ten-year-old niece's letters, sketchy evidence at best. Fascinating is the relationship of Mansfield and Woolf, which alternates from fierce rivalry to sexual attraction.