ABSTRACT
The Routledge Companion to Romantic Women Writers (RCRW) aims to encourage scholarship on women writers of the Romantic era. It does so by offering a curated survey of the critical heritage of more than 47 woman writers alongside more general, topical, essays that reveal the engagement of women writers in a range of areas. RCRW is not a work of literary history, criticism, or theory. Instead, RCRW functions as a vade mecum of sorts, with standard sections which guide a reader in understanding the resources available to support new research, the shape of the critical conversation on an author and her works from publication to present, and the areas yet to be examined. The women writers we examine identify as English, Welsh, Scottish, Irish, and South African. Some were travelers, recording their experiences in their own and other cultures. Others turned a critical eye to the institutions (and institutions of oppression) in their own communities. Aristocrats, gentry, and working class, they represent a range of socio-economic positions, and their writings reveal the privileges and penalties of their roles. We also include selected topical essays on areas in which women’s engagement is significant.
