Book

Targoff, Ramie, author.

Shakespeare's sisters : how women wrote the Renaissance / Ramie Targoff.

First edition.

New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2024.

©2024

xiii, 316 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 25 cm

"A remarkable work about women writers in the Renaissance explodes our notion of the Shakespearean period and brings us in close to four women who were committed to their craft before there was any possibility of "a room of one's own." In a sparkling and engaging narrative of everyday life in Shakespearean England, Ramie Targoff carries us from the sumptuous coronation of Queen Elizabeth in the mid-sixteenth century into the private lives of four women writers working without acknowledgment at a time when women were legally the property of men. Some readers may have heard of Mary Sidney, accomplished poet and sister of the famous Sir Philip Sidney, but few will have heard of Amelia Lanyer, the first woman to publish a book of poetry in the 17th century, which offered a feminist take on the crucifixion, or Elizabeth Cary, who published the first original play by a woman, about the plight of the Jewish princess Mariam. Then there was Anne Clifford, a lifelong diarist, who fought for decades against a patriarchy that tried to rob her of her land, in one of England's most infamous inheritance battles. These women had husbands and children to care for and little support for their art, yet against all odds they defined themselves as writers, finding rooms of their own whose doors had been shut for centuries. Targoff flings them open to uncover the treasures left by these extraordinary women by helping us see the period in a fresh light and by supplying an expanded reading of history and a much-needed female perspective on life in Shakespeare's day"-- Provided by publisher.

Pembroke, Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of, 1561-1621 -- Criticism and interpretation.

Lanyer, Aemilia -- Criticism and interpretation.

Cary, Elizabeth, Lady, 1585 or 1586-1639 -- Criticism and interpretation.

Pembroke, Anne Clifford Herbert, Countess of, 1590-1676 -- Criticism and interpretation.

English literature -- 17th century -- History and criticism.

English literature -- Women authors -- History and criticism.

Women and literature -- Great Britain -- History -- 17th century.

Women -- England -- Social conditions -- 17th century.

Renaissance -- England.

English literature -- Early modern, 1500-1700 -- History and criticism.

Literary criticism.

"This is a Borzoi book published by Alfred A. Knopf"--Title page verso.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 275-300) and index.

Family charts -- Introduction: October 1928: Newnham College and Girton College, Cambridge University (Judith Shakespeare) -- April 28, 1603: Westminster, London (Queen Elizabeth) -- October 27, 1561: Tickenhill Palace, Worcestershire (Mary Sidney) -- April 11, 1576: St. Botolph's Without Bishopsgate, London (Aemilia Lanyer) -- November 17, 1588: Ludgate Hill, London (Mary Sidney) -- Unknown date, 1595: New Woodstock, Oxfordshire (Elizabeth Cary) -- May 17, 1597: Stone House, Billingsgate, London (Aemilia Lanyer) -- June 24, 1603: Dingley Hall, Northamptonshire (Anne Clifford) -- February 2, 1609: Banqueting House, Whitehall Palace (Aemilia Lanyer) -- December 17, 1612: Stationers' Hall, Ave Maria Lane, London (Elizabeth Cary) -- January 5, 1617: Presence Chamber, Whitehall Palace (Anne Clifford) -- May 13, 1619: Henry VII Chapel, Westminster Abbey (Mary Sidney) -- November 11, 1620: Court of Chancery, Westminster Hall (Aemilia Lanyer) -- February 20, 1627: Ten Miles from London (Elizabeth Cary) -- December 11, 1643: Baynard's Castle, London (Anne Clifford) -- Epilogue: May 29, 1989: Linsly-Chittenden Hall, New Haven, Connecticut.

2023013910

9780525658030

0525658033

9781984899514

1984899511

1424620504

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