THE WOMEN NOVELISTS BY R. BRIMLEY JOHNSON AUTHOR OF “TALES PROM CHAUCER” “TOWARDS RELIGION” “TENNYSON AND HIS POETRY” [Illustration] LONDON: 48 PALL MALL W. COLLINS SONS & CO. LTD. GLASGOW MELBOURNE AUCKLAND Copyright 1918 I have to thank the editor and publisher of _The Athenæum_ for permission to reprint the chapter on “Parallel Passages”; the editor and publisher of _The Gownsman_ for permission to use “A Study in Fine Art”; Professor Gollancz and Messrs. Chatto & Windus for permission to reprint the section on “Cranford” which was written for an Introduction to a reprint of that novel in “The King’s Classics.” CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTION 1 BEFORE MISS BURNEY THE FIRST WOMAN NOVELIST 7 FANNY BURNEY, 1752-1840 A PICTURE OF YOUTH 35 FANNY BURNEY’S “CAMILLA” “CECILIA” TO “SENSE AND SENSIBILITY” 54 WRITERS FROM 1782-1811 A STUDY IN FINE ART 66 JANE AUSTEN, 1775-1817 A “MOST ACCOMPLISHED COQUETTE” 105 JANE AUSTEN’S “LADY SUSAN” PARALLEL PASSAGES 117 JANE AUSTEN AND FANNY BURNEY “PERSUASION” TO “JANE EYRE” 131 WRITERS FROM 1818-1847 A LONELY SOUL 164 CHARLOTTE BRONTË, 1816-1855 “JANE EYRE” TO “SCENES OF CLERICAL LIFE” 179 WRITERS FROM 1847-1858 A PROFESSIONAL WOMAN 204 GEORGE ELIOT, 1819-1880 THE GREAT FOUR 226 BURNEY, AUSTEN, BRONTË, GEORGE ELIOT THE WOMAN’S MAN 245 AN IDEAL AND A POINT OF VIEW PERSONALITIES 263 CHARACTER ANALYSIS AND BIOGRAPHICAL OUTLINES CONCLUSION 282 APPENDIX--LIST OF MINOR WRITERS 293 INDEX TO AUTHORS AND TITLES 297 THE WOMEN NOVELISTS INTRODUCTION Although women wrote novels before Defoe, the father of English fiction, or Richardson, the founder of the modern novel, we cannot detect any peculiarly feminine elements in their work, or profitably consider it apart from the general development of prose. In the beginning they copied men, and saw through men’s eyes, because--here and elsewhere--they assumed that men’s dicta and practice in life and art were their only possible guides and examples. Women to-day take up every form of fiction attempted by men, because they assume that their powers are as great, their right to express themselves equally varied.