Nineteenth-Century Stories by Women: An Anthology

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

A few of the stories in this collection will appeal to anyone who enjoys
well-crafted short fiction, regardless of the century in which it was
produced or the sex of the author. Such stories, however, are
overshadowed by a preponderance of stories that are as Victorian as
antimacassars and mourning jewelry.

The collection is a distillate of Victorian women’s culture, a world
of uncaring husbands, fragile children, faithless lovers, and restless
ghosts. Even nature shows its black side to these tormented heroines, as
they struggle against a wicked world and their own despair.

The anthology is a wonderful wallow in wretchedness as only Victorians
could craft it. There are dark, wind-swept moors, restless spirits
moaning through isolated houses, raging storms, cruel husbands, deathbed
pathos, and lurking insanity. Victorians suspected links between ghost
sightings and menstruation, insanity and menopause. With this concept of
their sexuality, no wonder Victorian women saw themselves as the
playthings of fate.

The anthology includes 21 stories, the work of 20 writers, including
such well-known names as Louisa May Alcott, Elizabeth Gaskell, Lucy Maud
Montgomery, and Mary Shelley. Both British and North American writers
are included. The editor makes the point that female short-story writers
of the 19th century did not encounter the opposition faced by female
novelists: short fiction was less profitable and so was considered more
suitable for women.

For each author there’s a photo, a biographical note, and a selected
bibliography (reprints and secondary sources). This collection will be
welcomed by everyone who loves Victoriana, those interested in the
development and evolution of fiction writing, and anyone intrigued by
women’s changing views about their place in the family and society.