ABSTRACT

A valuable survey and reference resource It is hard to imagine a more needed and more useful literary reference work than this one, which gives students and readers quick access to the lives and work of a wide range of notable female writers from England and the Continent, from Aphra Behn to Emily Bronte, from Simone de Beauvoir to Isak Dinesen, from Bridget of Sweden to Hannah Arendt. Writers in more than 30 languages are included: French, Czech, Greek, Italian, Swedish, Spanish, German, Russian, Portuguese, Serbian, Catalan, Arabic, Hebrew, Dutch, Bulgarian, Croatian, Slovak, and more. Covers 1,500 years and all major genres Going back 15 centuries, the Encyclopedia covers the authors of novels, short stories, poetry, plays, criticism, social commentary, feminist manifestos, romances, mysteries, memoirs, children's literature, biography, and other genres. In signed entries, some of which are mini-essays, experts in the field examine writers' lives and achievements, comment on individual works, place artistic efforts in historical context, provide insights and analyses, and present more information than can be easily found elsewhere without undertaking more exhaustive research. Each entry is followed by a bibliography of primary works. Indexed by language, nationality, genre, and century. Spotlights the interesting lives of notable writers In these pages students and readers will meet hundreds of interesting women writers who made lasting contributions to the intellectual and popular culture of their countries while often leading fascinating lives, among them: * AGATHA CHRISTIE , who wrote her first book in response to her sister's demand for a detective story that was harder to solve than the popular fiction of her day, and whose work has been translated in more languages than Shakespeare's. * HILDEGARD VON BINGEN , the 12th-century German mystic, who wrote profusely as a prophet, a poet, a dramatist, a physician, and a political moralist, often communicated with popes and princes, and exerted a tremendous influence on the Western Europe of her time * MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT SHELLEY, whose 1818 masterpiece Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus became a literary sensation around the world * ILSE BLUMENTHAL-WEISS, one of the few concentration camp survivors to memorialize the victims of the Holocaust in German verse * LINA WERTMULLER, who in addition to her work in films, has written plays for the stage and a novel, and who once was a member of a short-lived puppet theater that staged the works of Kafka. Special features: Ideal for quick reference and student research * Multicultural-covers over 30 languages and 15 centuries * Includes many contemporary writers * Provides essential biographic data on each writer * Each entry is followed by a chronological listing of the writer's published book-length works * Offers critical evaluations of major works * Indexes help find writers by country...research by time period...survey genres...focus on languages

letter 1|18 pages

A

entry |2 pages

Ilse Aichinger

entry |2 pages

Bella Alchátovna Akhmadúlina

entry |3 pages

Anna Akhmatova

entry |2 pages

Sibilla Aleramo

entry |2 pages

Leonor de Almeida de Portugal

entry |2 pages

Concha Alós

entry |2 pages

Loula Anagnostalci

entry |2 pages

Anyte

entry |2 pages

Tullia d'Aragona

entry |2 pages

Hannah Arendt

entry |2 pages

Bettine von Arnim

entry |2 pages

Aspāzija

entry |3 pages

Marie-Catherine le Jumel de Barneville, Baronne d'Aulnoy

entry |3 pages

Jane Austen

letter 2|56 pages

B

entry |2 pages

Sophie Louise Charlotte (von Klenow) Baden

entry |2 pages

Teresa Landucci Bandettini

entry |2 pages

Natalie Clifford Barney

entry |2 pages

Emilia Pardo Bazán

entry |2 pages

Salomėja Bčinskcaitė-Bučienė

entry |3 pages

Madame Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont

entry |3 pages

Simone de Beauvoir

entry |2 pages

Aphra Behn

entry |3 pages

Maria Elisa Belpaire

entry |1 pages

Illuminata Bembo

entry |2 pages

Catherine Bernard

entry |2 pages

Sister Bertlcen

entry |2 pages

Kata Bethlen

entry |2 pages

Charlotte Dorothea Biehl

entry |3 pages

Anna Bijns

entry |2 pages

Louise Cathrine Elisabeth Bjørnsen

entry |3 pages

Ana Blandiana

entry |1 pages

Ilse Blumenthal-Weiss

entry |2 pages

Anne-Marie Fiquet du Bocage

entry |2 pages

Cecilia Böhl de Faber y Larrea

entry |2 pages

Elisabeth Borchers

entry |2 pages

Anna Louisa Geertruida Bosboom-Toussaint

entry |2 pages

Katharina Boudewijns

entry |3 pages

Elizabeth (Dorothea Cole) Bowen

entry |2 pages

Karin Boye

entry |2 pages

Sophia Elisabet (Weber) Brenner

entry |2 pages

Bridget of Sweden

entry |3 pages

Marguerite Briet

entry |1 pages

Anna Brigadere

entry |2 pages

Vera Brittain

entry |2 pages

Ivana Brlić-Ma'uranić

entry |2 pages

Suzanne Brøgger

entry |2 pages

Anne Brontë

entry |3 pages

Charlotte Brontë

entry |3 pages

Emily Brontë

entry |2 pages

Anita Broolcner

entry |2 pages

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

entry |3 pages

Friederike (Frederikke) Brun

entry |2 pages

Janina Brzostowslca

entry |2 pages

Lukrecija Bogašinović Budmani

entry |3 pages

Frances (Fanny) Burney

entry |2 pages

Constanţa Buzea

letter 3|34 pages

C

entry |2 pages

Wilhelmina “Minna” Ulrika (Johnson) Canth

entry |2 pages

Jane Welsh Carlyle

entry |2 pages

Ana Caro Mallen de Soto

entry |4 pages

Barbara Cartland

entry |2 pages

Castelloza

entry |1 pages

Caterina da Siena

entry |4 pages

Catherine II (the Great), Empress of Russia

entry |3 pages

Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle

entry |1 pages

Laura Cereta

entry |1 pages

Ernestina de Champourcín (y Morán de Loredo)

entry |2 pages

Gabrielle-Emilie le Tonnilier de Breteuil Châtelet-Lomont

entry |3 pages

Inger Christensen

entry |3 pages

Agatha Christie

entry |3 pages

Christine de Pizan

entry |3 pages

Caryl Churchill

entry |2 pages

Hélène Cixous

entry |1 pages

Clare of Assisi

entry |1 pages

Lady Anne Clifford

entry |3 pages

Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette

entry |2 pages

Camilla Collett

entry |3 pages

Ivy Compton-Burnett

entry |2 pages

Corinna

entry |2 pages

Natalia de Oliveira Correia

letter 4|23 pages

D

entry |2 pages

Maria D̨abrowska

entry |2 pages

Madame du Deffand

entry |3 pages

Shelagh Delaney

entry |3 pages

Grazia Deledda

entry |2 pages

Marie Dentière

entry |2 pages

Catharine Irma Dessaur

entry |2 pages

The Countess off Did

entry |5 pages

Isak Dinesen

entry |3 pages

Margaret Drabble

entry |4 pages

Stéphanie Ducrest, Countess of Genlis

entry |4 pages

Amandine-Aurore-Lucie Dupin, Baronne Dudevant

entry |2 pages

Marguerite Duras

letter 5|17 pages

E

entry |2 pages

Emily Eden

entry |2 pages

Maria Edgeworth

entry |2 pages

Egeria

entry |1 pages

Marianne Ehrmann

entry |3 pages

George Eliot

entry |2 pages

Elisabeth Charlotte Pfalzgräfin, Herzogin von Orléans

entry |2 pages

Elisabeth of Nassau-Saarbrücken

entry |2 pages

Elisabeth von Schönau

entry |2 pages

Queen Elizabeth I

entry |2 pages

Dorothe Engelbretsdatter

entry |2 pages

Erinna

entry |2 pages

Florbela de Alma da Conceição Espanca

entry |3 pages

Concha Espina

letter 6|10 pages

F

entry |1 pages

Camilla Faa' Gonzaga

entry |2 pages

Oriana Fallaci

entry |2 pages

Cassandra Fedele

entry |2 pages

Susan Edmonstone Ferrier

entry |2 pages

Margita Figuli

entry |3 pages

Emilie Flygare-Carlén

entry |2 pages

Marie Louise von Françoise

entry |2 pages

Anneliese (“Anne”) Frank

letter 7|27 pages

G

entry |2 pages

Dora Petrova Gabe

entry |1 pages

Madame Gacon-Dufour

entry |1 pages

Veronica Gambara

entry |3 pages

Elizabeth Gaslcell

entry |2 pages

Gertrud of Helfta

entry |2 pages

Natalia Ginzburg

entry |3 pages

Zinaida Gippius

entry |2 pages

Leah Goldberg

entry |3 pages

Claire Goll

entry |3 pages

Catherine Grace Frances Moody Gore

entry |3 pages

Luise Adelgunde Victoria Gottsched

entry |2 pages

Marie-Olympe de Gouges

entry |2 pages

Marie le Jars de Gournay

entry |4 pages

Marie Eugenie delle Grazie

entry |2 pages

Kate Greenaway

entry |2 pages

Lady Augusta Gregory

entry |2 pages

Maria de Groot

entry |3 pages

Jeanne-Marie Bouvier de la Motte, Mme Guyon

entry |2 pages

Thomasine Gyllembourg

letter 8|22 pages

H

entry |3 pages

Hella Haasse

entry |2 pages

Hadewijch

entry |2 pages

Maša Hal'amová

entry |2 pages

Radclyffe Hall

entry |2 pages

Aase Hansen

entry |3 pages

Frederikke (Rinna/Renna) Elisabeth Brun Juul Hauch

entry |2 pages

Heloise

entry |2 pages

Felicia Dorothea Browne Hemans

entry |2 pages

Georgette Heyer

entry |2 pages

Magdalena Heymair

entry |2 pages

Hildegard von Bingen

entry |2 pages

Octavia Hill

entry |1 pages

Esther (“Etty”) Hillesum

entry |2 pages

Agneta Horn

entry |2 pages

Maria Teresa Horta

entry |2 pages

Hrotsvit of Gandersheim

entry |3 pages

Lucy Apsley Hutchinson

letter 9|4 pages

I

entry |1 pages

Fotini Ikonomidou

entry |3 pages

Elizabeth Simpson Inchbald

entry |2 pages

Luce Irigaray

letter 10|5 pages

J

entry |2 pages

Vidmcmtė Jasukaityté

entry |2 pages

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala

entry |2 pages

Ragnhild Jølsen

entry |2 pages

Julian of Norwich

letter 11|16 pages

K

entry |2 pages

Aino Kallas

entry |1 pages

Margarita Karapanou

entry |2 pages

Zoe Karelli

entry |1 pages

Kassia

entry |2 pages

Frances Anne Kemble

entry |2 pages

Margery Kempe

entry |2 pages

Diana Kempff

entry |2 pages

Marie-Thérèse Kerschbaumer

entry |2 pages

Nadezhda Khvoshchinskaia

entry |2 pages

Käthe Kollwitz

entry |2 pages

Ljarissa Kosac

entry |3 pages

Sofia Kovalevskaia

entry |3 pages

Ursula Krechel

letter 12|25 pages

L

entry |2 pages

Louise Labé

entry |2 pages

Claire (Rose) Lacombe

entry |2 pages

Marie-Madeleine, Pioche de la Vergne, Comtesse de Lafayette

entry |2 pages

Lady Caroline Lamb

entry |2 pages

Mary Ann Lamb

entry |2 pages

Anne-Therese de Marguenat de Courcelles, Marquise de Lambert

entry |2 pages

Anna Margrethe Lasson

entry |1 pages

Violette Leduc

entry |2 pages

Sophia Lee

entry |2 pages

Rosamond Lehmann

entry |2 pages

Anna Maria (Malmstedt) Lenngren

entry |2 pages

Madame Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont

entry |2 pages

Doris Lessing

entry |2 pages

Astrid Lindgren

entry |2 pages

Elizabeth Lynn Linton

entry |2 pages

Virginie Loveling

entry |3 pages

Monica Lovinescu

entry |2 pages

Rosa Luxemburg

letter 13|63 pages

M

entry |2 pages

(Emilie) Rose Macaulay

entry |2 pages

Elizabeth Mackintosh

entry |2 pages

Ella Maillart

entry |3 pages

Françoise d'Aubigné, Marquise de Maintenon

entry |1 pages

Nadezhda Mandelshtam

entry |2 pages

(Mary) Delariviere Manley

entry |2 pages

Eeva-Liisa Manner

entry |3 pages

Olivia Manning

entry |2 pages

Katherine Mansfield

entry |2 pages

Gianna Manzini

entry |2 pages

Margaret of Austria

entry |3 pages

Marguerite de Navarre

entry |1 pages

Marguerite de Valois

entry |2 pages

Marie de France

entry |2 pages

Elena Maróthy-Šoltésová

entry |2 pages

Florence Marryat

entry |2 pages

Anne Marsh-Caldwell

entry |3 pages

Harriet Martineau

entry |2 pages

Carmen Martín-Gaite

entry |4 pages

María Martínez Sierra

entry |2 pages

Chiara Matraini

entry |2 pages

Friederilce Mayröcker

entry |2 pages

Mechthild von Magdeburg

entry |2 pages

Dorothea Mendelssohn-Veit-Schlegel

entry |2 pages

Sophie Mereau

entry |2 pages

Théroigne de Méricourt

entry |2 pages

Aila Meriluoto

entry |2 pages

Charlotte Mew

entry |3 pages

Alice Meynell

entry |2 pages

Louise Michel

entry |2 pages

Jóreiðr Hermundardóttir í Miðjumdal

entry |3 pages

Mary Russell Mitford

entry |2 pages

Nancy Mitford

entry |2 pages

Paula Modersohn-Becker

entry |2 pages

Karin Moe

entry |1 pages

Moero

entry |3 pages

Dolors Monserdà de Macía

entry |2 pages

Elizabeth Montagu

entry |3 pages

Mary Wortley Montagu

entry |3 pages

Anne-Marie Louise d'Orléans, Duchesse de Montpensier

entry |2 pages

Giuliana Morandini

entry |2 pages

Elsa Morante

entry |3 pages

Hannah More

entry |3 pages

Irmtraud Morgner

entry |1 pages

Francois Bertaut, Dame Langlois de Motteville

entry |3 pages

(Jean) Iris Murdoch

entry |2 pages

Vera Mutafčieva

letter 14|13 pages

N

entry |3 pages

Christiane Benedikte Eugenie Naubert

entry |2 pages

Ada Negri

entry |2 pages

Margarita Nelken

entry |2 pages

Božena Nĕmcová

entry |1 pages

Aīda Niedra

entry |3 pages

Florence Nightingale

entry |2 pages

Anna-Elizabeth de Noailles (de Brancovan)

entry |2 pages

Isotta Nogarola

entry |2 pages

Hedvig Charlotta Nordenflycht

entry |2 pages

Nossis

entry |2 pages

Christine Nöstlinger

letter 15|5 pages

O

entry |2 pages

Edna O'Brien

entry |2 pages

Annalena Odaldi

entry |2 pages

Margaret Oliphant

letter 16|24 pages

P

entry |1 pages

Monika van Paemel

entry |2 pages

Vera Panova

entry |2 pages

Hortensia Papadat-Bengescu

entry |1 pages

Larin Paraske

entry |1 pages

Emilia Pardo Bazán

entry |3 pages

Callirhoe Parren

entry |1 pages

Françoise Pascal

entry |2 pages

Margaret Paston

entry |2 pages

Heidi Pataki

entry |3 pages

Karolina Pavlova

entry |1 pages

Caterina Percoto

entry |2 pages

Vibia Perpetua

entry |2 pages

Maria Petijt

entry |2 pages

Katharine Philips

entry |2 pages

Hester Lynch Salsubury Thrale Piozzi

entry |2 pages

Adelheid Popp

entry |2 pages

Jane Porter

entry |1 pages

Beatrix Potter

entry |1 pages

Modesta Pozzo

entry |2 pages

Stanistawa Przybyszewska

entry |1 pages

Barbara Pym

letter 17|3 pages

Q

entry |2 pages

Elena Quiroga

entry |2 pages

Françoise Quoirez

letter 18|25 pages

R

entry |2 pages

Rachilde

entry |3 pages

Ann Ward Radcliffe

entry |2 pages

Radegunde

entry |2 pages

Marie Louise de la Ramée

entry |2 pages

Lea Ráskai

entry |2 pages

Irina Ratushinslcaia

entry |2 pages

Gerlind Reinshagen

entry |2 pages

Mary Renault

entry |2 pages

Franziska von Reventlow

entry |2 pages

Jean Rhys

entry |2 pages

Dorothy Richardson

entry |3 pages

Luise Rinser

entry |2 pages

Lady Anne Thackeray Ritchie

entry |2 pages

Mary Darby Robinson

entry |1 pages

Dames des Roches

entry |2 pages

Edith Rode

entry |2 pages

Christina Rossetti

entry |3 pages

Evdokiia Rostopchina

entry |2 pages

Ulla Ryum

letter 19|73 pages

S

entry |2 pages

Marguerite Hessein de la Sablière

entry |3 pages

Nelly Sachs

entry |3 pages

Vita (Victoria Mary) Sackville-West

entry |1 pages

Barbara Sadowska

entry |2 pages

Cora Sandel

entry |2 pages

Francesco Sanvitale

entry |2 pages

Sappho

entry |2 pages

Galateia Sarantë

entry |2 pages

Nathalie Sarraute

entry |1 pages

Albertine Sarrazin

entry |3 pages

Catherina Anna Maria de Savornin Lohman

entry |2 pages

Dorothy L. Sayers

entry |2 pages

Solveig Margareta von Schoultz

entry |2 pages

Olive Emilie Albertina Schreiner

entry |2 pages

Anna-Maria van Schurman

entry |2 pages

Alice Schwartzer

entry |2 pages

Sibylle Schwarz

entry |2 pages

Annemarie Schwarzenbach

entry |2 pages

Madeleine de Scudéry

entry |2 pages

Anna Seghers

entry |2 pages

Sophie de Ségur

entry |2 pages

Séverine

entry |2 pages

Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise de Sévigné

entry |2 pages

Anna Sewell

entry |2 pages

Marietta Shaginian

entry |3 pages

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

entry |2 pages

Frances Sheridan

entry |3 pages

Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke

entry |2 pages

Ieva Simonaitytė

entry |2 pages

María del Pilar de Sinués de Marco

entry |2 pages

Dame Edith Sitwell

entry |3 pages

Amalie Skram

entry |2 pages

Božena Slančilcová

entry |2 pages

Smara

entry |2 pages

Florence Margaret Smith

entry |1 pages

Edith Irene Södergran

entry |2 pages

Nadezhda Sokhanskaia

entry |2 pages

Mary Somerville

entry |3 pages

Somerville and Ross

entry |2 pages

Joanna Southcott

entry |2 pages

Muriel Spark

entry |2 pages

Maria Luisa Spaziani

entry |2 pages

Adrienne von Speyr

entry |2 pages

Marguerite-Jeanne Cordier de Launay, Baronne de Staal

entry |2 pages

Germaine Necker, Baronne de Staël-Holstein

entry |1 pages

Elsbeth C. Stagel

entry |2 pages

Gaspard Stampa

entry |2 pages

Lucy Hester Stanhope

entry |1 pages

Anna Stanislawska

entry |1 pages

Enid (Mary) Starkie

entry |3 pages

Christina (Ellen) Stead

entry |2 pages

Edith Stein

entry |2 pages

Anne Stevenson

entry |2 pages

Veronika Strēlerte

entry |2 pages

Lorenza Strozzi

entry |2 pages

Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots

entry |1 pages

Sulpicia

entry |2 pages

Margarete Susman

entry |3 pages

Berta von Suttner

entry |1 pages

Henriette de Coligny, Comtesse de La Suze

entry |1 pages

Karin Sveen

entry |2 pages

Magda Szabó

entry |1 pages

Wislawa Szymborslca

letter 20|22 pages

T

entry |2 pages

Arcangela Tarabotti

entry |2 pages

Sabine-Casimir-Amable Voïart Tastu

entry |2 pages

Elizabeth Taylor

entry |2 pages

Emma Tennant

entry |2 pages

Teresa de Cartagena

entry |2 pages

Saint Teresa of Jesus

entry |2 pages

Laura Terracina

entry |2 pages

Maria Tesselschade

entry |1 pages

Anne Teyssiéras

entry |2 pages

Ilse Tielsch

entry |2 pages

Märta Eleonora Tikkanen

entry |2 pages

Tat'iana Tolstaia

entry |2 pages

Flora Célestine Thérese Henriette Tristan

entry |2 pages

Frances Milton Trollope

entry |1 pages

Birgitta Trotzig

entry |3 pages

Marina Tsvetaeva

entry |2 pages

Esther Tusquets

letter 21|10 pages

U

entry |2 pages

Julia Uceda

entry |2 pages

Liesl Ujvary

entry |2 pages

Leonora Christina Ulfeldt

entry |2 pages

Regina Ullmann

entry |2 pages

Umiltà of Faenza

entry |2 pages

Marie Under

entry |3 pages

Sigrid Undset

entry |2 pages

Johanna Charlotte Unzer

letter 22|11 pages

V

entry |2 pages

Helenē Vakalo

entry |2 pages

Helena Valentí

entry |1 pages

Marja-Liisa Vartio

entry |2 pages

Elizabeth vesey

entry |2 pages

Björg Vik

entry |2 pages

Madame de Villedieu

entry |2 pages

Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot Gallon, Dame de Villeneuve

entry |2 pages

Renée Vivien

entry |2 pages

Suzanne Voilquin

entry |2 pages

Henny de Vreede

letter 23|31 pages

W

entry |1 pages

Wallādah bint Al-Mustakfī

entry |2 pages

Maxie Wander

entry |3 pages

Sylvia Townsend Warner

entry |2 pages

Beatrice Potter Webb

entry |2 pages

(Gladys) Mary Webb

entry |3 pages

Simone Weil

entry |2 pages

Fay Weldon

entry |3 pages

Lina Wertmuller

entry |3 pages

Rebecca West

entry |2 pages

Christa Winsloe

entry |5 pages

Christa Wolff

entry |2 pages

Elizabeth Wolff-Bekker

entry |2 pages

Mary Wollstonecraft (Godwin)

entry |3 pages

Virginia Woolf

entry |2 pages

Dorothy Wordsworth

entry |3 pages

Pauline Frederikke Worm

entry |2 pages

Lady Mary Wroth

entry |3 pages

Hella Maria Wuolijoki

letter 24|5 pages

Y

entry |3 pages

Charlotte Mary Yonge

entry |3 pages

Marguerite Yourcenar

letter 25|5 pages

Z

entry |2 pages

María de Zayas y Sotomayor

entry |2 pages

Zemaitė

entry |2 pages

Iulia Zhadovskaia

entry |2 pages

Maria Zhukova