Dilly Dalley’s Reviews > Jane Austen's Bookshelf: The women writers who shaped a legend > Status Update
Dilly Dalley
is on page 79 of 464
Jane Austen drew inspiration and skills from the writers who went before her and yet somehow we read only Jane Austen today - not Frances Burney, Maria Edgeworth, etc. How did this happen? It is not just that Jane Austen was great, but it was also forces in her favour memorialising by her family over a hundred years, and by sexism in critical analysis which says there can only be 1 great female writer to enter canon.
— Aug 10, 2026 07:37PM
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Dilly Dalley
is on page 258 of 464
Finished Charlotte Smith & Elizabeth Inchbald. Becoming increasingly moved by the plight of these genius women under the oppressive forces of patriarchy. Maybe my biggest takeaway. Charlotte, married off at 16 to Benjamin Smith, the son of a rich London Merchant, becomes a cautionary tale of not marrying for money. Romney casts romance novels that exhort their readers 'to get to know thier suitor' as radical.
— 9 hours, 48 min ago
Dilly Dalley
is on page 178 of 464
Finished Charlotte Lennox and Hannah Moore. Charlotte Lennox's story was kind of wild and became Rebecca Romney's favourite "I came to love Charlotte Lennox most of all". p117. Hannah Moore was more of a challenge for Romney - the connections between Moore's moralising christian writing and Romney's own upbringing in the Mormon church were fraught. This was a fascinating chapter for me.
— Aug 19, 2026 05:05PM
Dilly Dalley
is on page 117 of 464
Read the Ann Radcliffe chapter - she basically invented the genre of Gothic Fiction, was hugely popular in her day, influenced Jane Austen (Northanger Abbey), and without her we would not have Frankenstein and Dracula. So, how is she not regarded as such? She missed out on memorialising after her death because she left no biographical information behind, and critics like Wordsworth are repeated by modern critics.
— Aug 12, 2026 04:12PM