The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women: The Traditions in English

The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women #1-2

by Sandra M. Gilbert (Editor), Susan Gubar (Editor), Isak Dinesen

Collects the novels, stories, poems, essays, memoirs, diaries, and letters of more than 170 writers--American, English, Canadian, and others writing in English

Genres: Fiction, Reference, Anthologies, Classics, Poetry, Literature, Feminism

2452 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1985

About the author

Sandra M. Gilbert was an American literary critic and poet who published in the fields of feminist literary criticism, feminist theory, and psychoanalytic criticism. She was best known for her collaborative critical work with Susan Gubar, with whom she co-authored, among other works, The Madwoman in the Attic (1979). Madwoman in the Attic is widely recognized as a text central to second-wave feminism. She was Professor Emerita of English at the University of California, Davis.
Gilbert lived in Berkeley, California, and lived, until 2008, in Paris, France. Her husband, Elliot L. Gilbert, was chair of the Department of English at University of California, Davis, until his death in 1991. She also had a long-term relationship with David Gale, mathematician at University of California, Berkeley, until his death in 2008.

Reviews

[Fatin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everybody should own a copy of this. It's abso-frikkin-lutely brilliant.

Some of the authors/poets included:
Sylvia Plath
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
The Bronte Sisters
Jane Austen
Alice Walker
Margaret Atwood
Gwendolyn Brooks
Emily Dickinson
Hilda Doolittle
Anne Finch
Marianne Moore
Dorothy Parker
Anne Sexton
Sojourner Truth
Louisa May Alcott
Kate Chopin
Edith Wharton
Virginia Woolf
Katherine Mansfield
Shirley Jackson
Angela Carter
Queen Elizabeth I




Women from all times, women from different classes, different races. Ahh. Just go buy it. You will not regret it.
I might hunt down some more anthologies by Norton.

[B. P. Rinehart · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an amazing book that gives a very comprehensive selection of women writers in the English language. It includes three novels and has poetry, plays, fiction, non-fiction from women. This anthology is notable as it was the first Norton Anthology based around a group traditionally ignored by "The Canon." Despite being from 1985, it is very well put together and holds-up to this day.

[Francesca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh my god, I found it!

It is no hyperbole to say that this book saved my life. I stole it off the shelves from my high school's bookstore & through it found many authors that would have taken me years to find otherwise, some not at all. The stories, novellas, & excerpts are arranged chronologically, with heaps of footnotes & information about the women who wrote them. Whoever edited this, Sanda M. Gilbert? A fucking genius, I bet she's a huge lez!

[Cami · Rating 5 out of 5]

This gigantic tome contains works by woman from Julian of Norwich and Anne Bradstreet to the Brontes to Dorothy Parker to Sexton and Plath to Maya Angelou.
I own a copy, but wouldn't give it up if you paid me.
Women from all walks of life and ages and countries have been gathered together and their words are magic.
GREAT reference material here. Could easily be found, used, in a college bookstore.

[H.L. Balcomb · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has been a bedside table read for me since 1995. It offers a great selection of female writings spanning from the fourteenth to the end of the twentieth centuries. A great read showcasing the shifting female identity with social expansion over time and opportunity. My favorite authors remain the contemporary influences of Kate Chopin, Virginia Woolf, and Maya Angelou.

[Ender · Rating 5 out of 5]

From the passage selections, introductions, and historical context analysis sections I’ve read, I am deeply impressed with this anthology. A must own for teachers who want to diversify their classroom content away from mainly men.

[Mary Overton]

In the New Yorker, Jill Lepore has a lovely essay about reading the classics as a form of resistance.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...
She is reading through the Penguin "Little Black Classics Boxed Set," available for $83.42 on Amazon. If it were available for Kindle I would "Buy now with 1-Click" in a heartbeat. But it's not, and my shelves groan with unread dead-tree books. Besides, a number of years ago I decided to flip my author reading ratio from 7 men/3 women over to 7 women/3 men - and the "Little Black Classics" would not help with that goal, even as I would like to read more of Sappho. So instead, I pulled out from the shelf one of those unread dead-tree books and will use it for my resistance-via-classics effort, "The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women: The Tradition in English."

[Wendy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Still referencing this work and dipping into it for great selections from a marvelously rich canon.

[Traummao · Rating 5 out of 5]

念书的时候，因为买不起，在学校图书馆一点点看完了这本书。工作了，送给自己的第一份礼物就是一本一模一样的二手书。

[Brooklyn Hart ❤️ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Splendid collection of women’s literature with contextual briefing and analysis!

[Inknscroll · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this Norton anthology, I enjoyed a beautiful tapestry of many women writers' poems, essays, letters, or excerpts of works (or whole works). I loved Anne Bradstreet's poetry, Abigail Adams' letters (especially "Remember the Ladies"), Phillis Wheatley's poetry, Sojourner Truth's story & speeches (especially "Ain't I a Woman?"), & Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poetry. I enjoyed Harriet Beecher Stowe, Harriet Jacobs' story of survival & escape from slavery, Charlotte Bronte, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Emily Bronte, George Elliot, Florence Nightingale, & Emily Dickinson. My favorite (excerpt or whole work) was Alice Walker's "In Search of Our Mother's Gardens." I, also, read Virginia Wolf's "A Room of One's Own" and many more writers who broadened my literary horizons. I definitely recommend this book that covers a multitude of women writers and writing styles from past eras to the Modern era (20th century). (This book covered mostly American & European women writers.)

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

An anothology well representing women lit, used by Bender in a class at Alma. There are some good pieces in it, and nothing against the feminists of the world -- I surround myself with empowered women, God knows -- but I just got tired of story after story with the same themes: women are just as good, don't hold us down, it's a man's world, I'm going crazy, let's try suicide. Sorry, I'm going to hell, I don't mean to mock these poor women, I understand, but I'm just saying: in a class with one other guy and 26 girls, reading story after story like this, it got to me a bit.

[S. · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is the textbook for my terrifically useless Feminism 101 indoctrination masquerading as an online Women and Literature class. I would much rather read entire books by women authors rather than trying to explicate whether a two-paragraph section of A Room of One's Own is constructivist or essentialist feminist literature. While I'm all for discovering new women writers, this book--at over 5lbs of 1,000 rice-paper-thin pages--is overwhelming and lacks direction. Plus, I hate this class.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

this pointed me in the right direction way back when.

[Kim Wells · Rating 5 out of 5]

Norton Anthology of Literature by Women (Boxed set, Volumes 1 and 2) by Elaine Showalter (2007)

[Melynda Burt · Rating 5 out of 5]

i get lost in this book every time i pick it up! an incredible collection that crosses virtually every style of fiction. puts the genre in a unique light and perspective.

[Cheryl Leigh]

This is a college textbook that I thoroughly enjoyed.

[Allison Lorraine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Contains complete novels, such as Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. An excellent compendium of too neglected by academia for too long literature.

[Melody DiSalvo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read!

[Jossalyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

in college