Eve Bites Back: An Alternative History of English Literature

by Anna Beer

Warned not to write – and certainly not to bite – these women put pen to paper anyway and wrote themselves into history.

From the fourteenth century through to the present day, women who write have been understood as mad, undisciplined or dangerous. Female writers have always had to find ways to overcome or challenge these beliefs. Some were cautious and discreet, some didn’t give a damn, but all lived complex, eventful and often controversial lives.

Eve Bites Back places the female contemporaries of Chaucer, Shakespeare and Milton centre stage in the history of literature in English, uncovering stories of dangerous liaisons and daring adventures. From Julian of Norwich, Margery Kempe, Aemilia Lanyer and Anne Bradstreet, to Aphra Behn, Mary Wortley Montagu, Jane Austen and Mary Elizabeth Braddon, these are the women who dared to write.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Feminism, Books About Books, Literature, Writing, Historical

304 pages, Hardcover

First published October 13, 2022

About the author

Anna's first book, type-written when she was 12, was 'Wuthering Claudia', written for, featuring, and strongly influenced by her classmates at Chiswick Community School. Now, several decades on, she continues to write about what interests her - and hopes will interest others. Her latest book, 'Sounds and Sweet Airs: the Forgotten Women of Classical Music' tells the fascinating and inspiring stories of eight female composers. It's a book that's been in her mind for years, and it's truly exciting to see it come to life.

Writing 'Sounds' has brought together a number of Anna's long-standing activities and passions - music, obviously; writing, even more obviously; thinking about women's lives in the past (which was the impetus for her book on Bess Throckmorton, wife to Sir Walter Ralegh); thinking about the material conditions necessary for the creation of 'great art' (which was one of the ideas behind her biography of John Milton).

Alongside her work as a biographer, Anna teaches English Literature and Creative Writing to undergraduates and postgraduates; contributes to the Oxford Student Texts series for Oxford University Press; and makes regular lecture and media appearances.

Anna's blog (www.shadowofthecourtesan.wordpress.com) reveals that research, writing and teaching are not Anna's only passions: she loves cycling (sometimes a long long way); good food and really good wine; and wandering around dirty, beautiful cities. Oh, and long-distance trains.

Reviews

[Aviana Joy · Rating 4 out of 5]

i support women’s rights, but more importantly i support women’s wrongs. i’ve also started getting targeted ads for the book of margery kempe.

[Dawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really good introduction to the lives and works of 7 women foundational to the 'alternative history of English literature' which Beer is trying to preserve; women who, on the most part, have been pushed under the radar since their deaths (though most were able to garner some sort of fame during their lives, against the odds). Beer's style is accessible and at times quite colloquial, which took me a while to get used to but I do think it was the best stylistic choice to make given the subject matter of the book. Beer doesn't attempt to write these women as saints, and is transparent about the fact that their histories, like all histories, are messy and contain factors we'd rather not think about (for example that Bradstreet and Montagu both benefitted largely from slavery, or that many of these women's works are still what we would consider today to be highly misogynistic). She encourages discussion and debate around these issues, urging readers not to fall into the trap of celebrating or condemning these writers for one facet of their lives - maybe it is people's tendency to do this which has led many of these stories to be buried so deep in history. Anyway, because I have the knowledge retention abilities of a brick, I've already forgotten lots of the information I read in this book, but the way it has encouraged me to think differently about some aspects of literature will stay with me (hopefully) for a long time.

(i wrote a semi-coherent review, are you proud of me)

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eve is not biting back, she just wants a break from being Eve. Braddon and Austen want their work to be read, not their lives. Cassandra Austen understood. She was protecting the second Jane from the world when she burned her letters. The families of Anne Bradstreet and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu did the same. Mary Elizabeth Braddon did it herself . . . These women (and their supporters) are seeking to hide the life, hoping that the work will be the more clearly seen, in the same way that some feminists now warn against the biographical turn because it will lead only to sexism.

The chapter on Jane Austen was quite moving.

[Fatima · Rating 4 out of 5]

I now also believe that Aemilia Layner might have been Shakespeare

[Katie Dufall]

DNF-ing cos lazy and it’s not gripping me enough to be arsed with finishing it

[Julia Nash · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish I liked this more.

[Libby West · Rating 4 out of 5]

I do not normally read non fiction but in the spirit of women’s history month I decided to read this book. I wasn’t sure what to expect but I was very impressed! This book told the lives, motivations, and hardships of several women authors thought out history. One of my favorite aspect of this book is that it didn’t put these women on a pedestal and glorify their works but was critical of them. It told their history as we know it and how their stories came to be. The only reason I didn’t give this book 5 starts is that I found the beginning hard to understand and I am once again not a huge fan of non fiction in general. I highly recommend you read this!!

[Amanda Spillane · Rating 3 out of 5]

eh expected more but some of it was interesting

[Lorna · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author, Anna Beer, covers eight women writers, starting with Julian of Norwich of the 1300's and ending with Mary Elizabeth Braddon who died in 1915. (Haven't heard of ME Braddon? Me either. She wrote 80 novels.) She states the word "author" is derived from the word "authority". How could women be authors as they had no authority?
She gives the societal construct, the current views/constraints on women (and women writers) for each of the women in the century in which they lived. She looks at them through our concerns today: sexism, racism, slavery, religious persecution, and explains their stance in the context of their society. She doesn't dismiss or excuse; but explains.
I haven't read any of the works she sites of other authorities on these women authors, but she points out when and why she agrees and disagrees with them based on her research.
This is not a quick read, but it is not a dry text book either. She is covering scholarly work with a bit of casualness in her writing. It helped keep me engaged. I can see the potential of reading it again; there's some astute observations I want to revisit. Before I return the book to the library, I am re-reading the first chapter. I recommend it!

[Itzy Morales · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely phenomenal, I could not put this down!

I am in awe at how well written and informative this book is. It really puts so much into perspective.

Anna Beer does an excellent job covering the lives and hardships that eight women suffered through in order to become writers. She dives deep into religion, sexism, racism, and their social standings.

Her writing style is unique in the sense that it’s not a textbook but a well written and informative piece of work with some wittiness. It keeps the reader engaged.

She does an excellent job giving back the voices of these forgotten writes.

[Carly Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short biographies/literary criticism of English women writers (most of whom are forgotten today). Anna Beer situations them in their historical period (from the Middle Ages to the 19th Century) as she explores how women's writing as been received and what women are permitted to publish.

[isabell ☮︎︎ · Rating 4 out of 5]

reading this felt like uncovering a vital part of literary history – how deeply societies have feared intelligent, ambitious women.
this book does more than just reclaim lost voices – it amplifies the lives and works of women authors, showing that their stories are not just footnotes but foundations of literary history. their rebellion against exclusion and erasure isn’t just inspiring; it’s necessary.

as someone passionate about studying literary history, this book reaffirmed my commitment to ensuring that more women are included in these conversations. we cannot let their contributions fade into obscurity. to honor their legacy is to acknowledge how they shaped literature and resisted the forces that sought to silence them.

let us remember and say the names of the women who wrote themselves into the history of English literature, despite the odds against them:

Christine de Pizan. Julian of Norwich. Margery Kempe. Aemilia Lanyer. Lady Mary Wroth. Mary Sidney. Anne Bradstreet. Aphra Behn. Mary Wortley Montagu. Mary Astell. Ann Radcliffe. Fanny Burney. Hannah More. Jane Austen. Maria Edgeworth. Caroline Lamb. Charlotte Mary Yonge. Mary Elizabeth Braddon.

their lives and works remind us that literature is not complete without their voices.

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beer explores the lives of various women writers who have become a staple of English Literature; their work, their struggles, etc. A fascinating take on the whole women as writers.

[charlie ✧.* · Rating 4 out of 5]

anna beer’s writing style is amazing, she is able to capture the reader’s attention on her subject while keeping a light and accessible tone

[Rose the Book Mouse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting, informative, and often amusing.
The audiobook, pleasantly read by the author, is very good company.
I highly recommend it.

[Colette Nolan]

Less of a history of literature and more of a collection of somewhat biographical essays about several women writers throughout history. Not a bad read, though not exactly what I was hoping for.

[Eva · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a quintessential read.

[Annabel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Authentic women’s writing, as Anna Beer reminds us, has always been declared impossible because men have controlled language itself. Words belonged to men, as did social, economic and political power, and yet against all odds, women wrote. They wrote with and against the myths they inherited, reshaping them into something new, leaving behind texts that still speak across centuries.

Reading Eve Bites Back felt like uncovering a vital, missing chapter of literary history: a crucial reminder of how deeply societies have feared intelligent and ambitious women, which Beer addresses through her stated aim, "to honour the memory and achievement of those born female who used their words to gain a sense of control over events or their own destiny". She gives a vibrant account of eight women who succeeded despite the barriers placed before them, often by bending or breaking the rules of their respective times, where her case studies ranges from the Middle Ages to the nineteenth century:

1 and 2. Julian of Norwich and Margery Kemp: "the older woman is Julian, who has chosen the life of the anchorite, to be secluded in a small cell within which she has already made her grave by scraping the soil from the floor. Kempe is very much in the world, public and active; Julian very much apart from the world, private and contemplative".

3. Aemilia Lanyer: "the first English woman to have a volume of her original poetry in print".

4. Anne Bradstreet: "the first American poet, the first American woman, the first American, to appear in print".

5. Aphra Behn: "playwriting since 1670, Behn had previously known some less-than-triumphant outings as dramatist".

6. Mary Wortley Montagu: "Lady Mary’s elite position in society (upper-class people are much more visible in the archive), but it is also because Montagu wrote so many letters, knew so many people who knew people, did so much, so publicly. For all her celebrity in her own lifetime, however, Montagu remains a strange kind of author. She resisted to the last putting her name to any work in print".

7. Jane Austen: "Austen is vital to this alternative history not because she is neglected but because her entry into the world of print publication, the three small volumes which comprised the first edition of Sense and Sensibility, was so long coming".

8. Mary Elizabeth Braddon: "between rehearsals and runs, Mary makes the time to write poetry, plays, reviews, short stories, anything".

Beer’s writing genuinely pulses with energy, pairing historical understanding with humour. Her style adopts a colloquial tone, drawing sharp parallels to contemporary life. For example when discussing Montagu’s charm, Beer likened it to Kamala Harris’s "relentless smiling as she campaigned to become Vice President, a response to the offensive but powerful stereotype of the 'angry black woman' and one presumably learned by Harris over many years of being a woman of colour in public life". It just felt like being in a lively seminar rather than a boring lecture! 💥

Beer acknowledges the book’s scope: all her chosen writers are white, English-born, and lived between 1400 and 1900. Yet she emphasises that the forces behind their marginalisation (noting sexism and classism) extend beyond the book’s immediate focus, writing of the "pre-echoes of our world now can be heard on every page". The resonance is undeniable: the struggles of these women are not only historical but urgently contemporary.

On a personal note, it reminded me of my own Master’s dissertation on Early Modern English gendered discourse. If only I’d had this book at the time, it would have been an invaluable reference! 😁

[Sara Klug · Rating 4 out of 5]

An alternate history of English literature, retelling the lives and accomplishments of eight female writers.

This is part biography, part revisionist history, and part literary philosophy, through the lives of eight writers whose work, created between the 14th and 19th centuries, has survived against the odds to today. Beer works chronologically from two late-medieval autobiographers Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe (Kempe is hilarious by the way, definitely recommend), Renaissance poet Aemilia Lanyer, Puritan poet Anne Bradstreet, Restoration playwright Aphra Benn, 18th century traveller and letter writer Mary Wortley Montagu, through to two major novelists of the 19th century Jane Austen and Mary Elizabeth Braddon.

Beer uses their individual stories to tell a larger truth about literary history and how it pertains to women. There are running threads of patriarchal oppression, obviously, but specifically the spread of religious fervour and sexual panic. To sell your mind was, and is to some, the same as selling your body and the links between the aggressive response to female writers and sex workers was equally interesting and disturbing. Clearly, some of these authors are more well known to us today than others, but even someone as famous as Jane Austen is only a blinding success in hindsight. Her legacy was hard fought, well earned, and never guaranteed.

As enthusiastic as she is about the significance of these women’s achievements, Beer is unafraid to tackle the less palatable realities. These are all white cis-women, often with a level of education and financial freedom that allowed them the privilege to write. They are not perfect and display the politics and racism of their time. It is an uncomfortable truth, too, that often the texts that survive the scandal of being written by a woman are those that most closely align themselves to patriarchy, encouraging their female readers to subjugate themselves. Beer asks her readers to confront this discomfort, and to consider the lives and realities of those writing.

An important and fascinating read, with a lot of inspiration for the TBR pile in future.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anna Beer’s goal with Eve Bites Back is to set the record straight on the history of great women writers. Through eight British authors, published and read by a wide audience between the fourteenth and nineteenth centuries, Beer brings their work forward as worthy of residing in the canon of great authors of Western literature. Of the eight, the most recognizable is Jane Austen. The others, mostly unknown, have been ignored according to Beer, and not viewed as serious authors worthy of study and reverence. Beer’s aim is to present an alternative history and to engage in “recuperative scholarship.”

So let’s scavenge and rebuild in the face of the destruction of women’s works. Lets’s find the scraps or rather the precious gems amidst the rubble: they form the foundation of the book you are now reading (p 16).

I enjoyed reading about the eight authors. I found them to be inspirational, tenacious, independent, and committed to their craft. Some, like Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe, were committed to God first and writing second. Their manuscripts were spiritual texts notable for their insight into women’s religious viewpoints and experiences in the Middle Ages.

I also found it interesting, though not surprising, how the majority of authors up to the nineteenth century needed men to help them publish their works, whether to sign off, promote, or, in the case of Anne Bradstreet, publish. Bradstreet’s collection of poetry titled The Tenth Muse was (apparently) published without her knowledge under the pen name ‘Gentlewoman’. It was Bradstreet’s husband, father, and brother-in-law who were behind the publication. Their intent was to use it as an advertisement for the new colony in Massachusetts, to showcase the progressive nature of its leaders. Whether Bradstreet was unaware of its publication or not, it allowed her to remain respectable, for no woman in British society in the seventeenth century would lower herself to be a published author on her own accord. We have come a long way.

Yet Beer doesn’t seem to think so. She suggests women authors still don’t get the recognition they deserve (p. 11). Some would disagree—author and journalist Ross Barkan, for instance. His recent article on Substack From Misogyny to No Man’s Land states that the majority of prominent novelists under the age of forty are women—promoted and supported by publishers, the media, and book-awarding institutions.

Whether you support Beer’s thesis or not, Eve Bites Back is a good read for those interested in the history of women’s literature or exploring a handful of little-known works worthy of adding to a reading list.

[Juliano · Rating 4 out of 5]

“So, let's scavenge and rebuild in the face of the destruction of women's work. Let's find the scraps, or rather the precious gems amidst the rubble: they form the foundations of the book you are now reading.” In Eve Bites Back, Anna Beer offers up ‘An Alternative History of English Literature’ through eight female writers from the medieval into the Victorian/Edwardian periods, to consider how erasure steeped in misogyny has robbed us of vital aspects of literary history, and to see the ways in which the canon and the craft of English Literature is enriched by seeing women’s place in it, often as fearless pioneers of new genres. Beer’s women often don’t have much in common with each other, and serve as a blend of names expected and otherwise, the writers everyone has heard of, the writers most literary people know of, and those few who were new even to me(!): Julian of Norwich, Margery Kempe, Aemilia Lanyer, Anne Bradstreet, Aphra Behn, Mary Wortley Montagu, Jane Austen, Mary Elizabeth Braddon. From her exegesis of Kempe as character vs person vs storyteller, to her view of the novel as “obvious choice and poisoned chalice” for Jane Austen, a form which offered “a new literary space for women” but which was also quickly “devalued”, Beer remains insightful and engaging throughout, situating the writers and their works in a wide tapestry of biography and histories both sociopolitical and literary. She is aware of the challenges of her project, as “One woman's life and work can never, should never, stand for all women's lives and works”, and how “We ask a lot of our female authors. We expect them to do some heavy lifting”. Yet still Beer achieves a luminous, essential new history.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eve Bites Back by Anna Beer
Some books are worth reading for the introduction alone, and this is an example of one. Subtitled “An Alternative History of English Literature”, it looks at the lives of eight women who had the audacity, nous, and sheer determination to assert their right to write in their chosen field. The title comes from the author’s first ambition to discover a woman in the Bible who may have actually written something. Alas the Patriarchs, and they were all men, seem to have had the writing honours all sewn up, and in the introduction Beer looks at how women were reduced to two main sorts – Eve, who not only sinned but cause Adam to greater sin, and Mary, mother of Jesus, role model for women for all time. Sinner and saint have thus been adopted into the background of women and creative output, that they are constitutionally unable to write, that they should only do so under strict rules and parameters, that if they write something good it’s remarkable but obviously not going to last. Writing under male pseudonym could get you some favourable attention, but it will only get you so far, and other women will not be impressed apparently. Even if a woman produces something truly exceptional there are ways for it to be ignored, Beer argues, or someone will produce a distraction. There is always the “Matilda Effect”, where it will be assumed that a man really came up with the idea, because that’s how it was done then.
This is a book which I really enjoyed reading and from which I learnt a lot!

[Madeline Cowgill Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Being a novels girlie, I found this a challenging read to begin with especially with the religious focus in the first half of the book. However, the chapters on Jane Austen and Mary Elizabeth Brandon which were more feminist centred utterly captivated me! The commentary on two of my favourite novels by the writers - Sense and Sensibility and Lady Audley’s Secret - made me want to reread the texts and delve deeper into the subversive and somewhat rebellious nature of the two authors writing in the patriarchal environment they found themselves in. Beer eloquently proves how depreciating it is to read a text written by a woman and instantly make suggestions that it is based on the writer’s own experiences. After all, women have imaginations and arguably are more sensitive to these natures than their male counterparts.

Ok essay over…..there’s my thoughts….

[Molly Parsons-O'Connor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eve Bites Back is an effort to recenter female authors in the canon of English literature, shedding new light on contemporaries of Shakespeare, Chaucer and Dickens. I would consider myself someone who goes out of their way to learn about female authors from history and while some figures in this book were familiar too me (hello Jane Austen), I was surprised at the number I had simply never heard of. This book was therefore a treasure trove of previously unheard voices and stories, from Julian of Norwich to Mary Elizabeth Braddon. What's more, Beer also examines public perceptions of female authorship through time and how each of her subjects either sought to counteract them through delicacy and performed modesty and how others chose to spit in their faces. An absolutely fascinating read and perfect for the lady author in your life.

[Bret · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though my reading of Beer’s book began inauspiciously, with her falling victim to one of my pet peeves (inaccurately calling Tertullian a Church Father before denouncing his views on something), in the following pages a truly great scholarly work unfolded. It treads lightly enough through scholarly minutiae to be, I would imagine, comprehensible to an intelligent high school student, but it treads with such a gait as to leave one with no questions that it’s author controls a strong breadth and depth of knowledge on her subject. Though it is academic, it is lively, and were I to describe it in but one word, that word would be judicious. (Having said that, the chapter on Jane Austen could have been stronger.)

[Sarah Wahl · Rating 4 out of 5]

This read took me a second to get into because I honestly didn't know much about some of the women authors talked about. In a way I'm glad that I didn't know, as this novel was able to show the importance of why a book like this needed to be written. I really enjoyed seeing what these women wrote and how their writing was received by society. Of course most of them had a negative response due to being a woman, but it was fascinating to see the genre difference between all the women and how that affected their career.

[Eryn Butler Hardy · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Authentic women’s writing is therefore impossible because men control language. All that is left for those born female is a form of imitation of male discourse.”

Eve Bites Back is a thought provoking novel about the loneliness of the female literary pioneer, woman exceptionalism, and who the women behind the pen really were.

This is a book that you let simmer. There’s so much information, it’s best that you bite off the book bit by bit. I learned so much about the women who trail blazed the literary world, and the prices they paid to be writers. This is a great book club novel!

[Lucy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. Beer offers a history to the 21st Century of the women in Literature who have been forgotten. I learnt so much about the achievements of women, such as a woman being one of the first to create a British detective novel, or that it was a woman who was the first American poet. Yet, these voices have been lost by time and lack of care to teach their work in school. I recommend this to everyone and anyone, a truly amazing read.

[Annika · Rating 5 out of 5]

6/5 ⭐
I absolutely loved the combination of Literary and Feminist theory. Though I do feel that I did not grasp the full extent of this book on my first reading (so I will be definitely reading this again). This book really opened my eyes to female authors I have never heard of and the intensity and difficulty of the Literary world, especially for women.

[Lou Reckinger · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m newly getting into feminist literary analysis, and I find it can be a tediously academic subject, so I am ever so grateful for Beer for keeping the tone so light. Comfortably read this on a casual Sunday, no overly theoretical academic beast, just a really interesting popular analysis.