Anthology of New Woman Poetry - (Anthem Nineteenth-Century) by Patricia Murphy (Hardcover)

About the Book

Women poets of the late Victorian period created much fascinating verse from the standpoint of the independent and advanced New Woman, a profoundly important figure. This anthology features a broad range of crucial subjects addressed by these poets, including marriage, motherhood, female desire, and social problems.

Book Synopsis

An anthology that explores the poetry of iconoclastic New Women from the late Victorian era

Women poets of the late Victorian period created much fascinating verse from the standpoint of the independent and advanced New Woman, a profoundly important figure with her iconoclastic perceptions of public and private matters. The New Woman sought to improve women's lives on a variety of fronts, bringing this individual both approbation and disdain. This anthology features a broad range of crucial subjects addressed by these poets, including marriage, motherhood, female desire, and social problems.
Although the iconoclastic New Women have garnered much interest in recent decades, relatively little attention has been devoted to the valuable poetry these authors produced. Many of the New Woman poets are barely known today, if at all, but their writings offer an exceptional lens onto contemporary conditions that provide inestimable value for Victorian studies. Although much of the work has languished in obscurity, this expansive anthology brings the fascinating poetry to the fore.
This volume provides an invaluable aid by uncovering poetry that has been long neglected or infrequently explored. Several of the poets developed extensive oeuvres investigating matters of special interest at the fin de siècle. It is not an easy task in the twenty-first century to identify, obtain, and review the nineteenth-century books containing these poems. This anthology provides a ready resource to access the poetry, which has had limited exposure in other modern collections.

Review Quotes

"Patricia Murphy's Anthology of New Woman Poetry makes available in a single volume a wealth of poetry otherwise to be found only in scattered periodicals and out-of-print volumes. Aptly introduced by Professor Murphy, this new collection stands as a vital resource for both research and the classroom." -- Linda K. Hughes, Addie Levy Professor of Literature Emerita, TCU, USA

"Offering wise insights in a historically comprehensive 'Introduction' and thematic groupings of unjustly forgotten works, this is the anthology we have been waiting for. It showcases late-Victorian feminist poetry, demonstrates its aesthetic and social significance, and makes a compelling case for appreciating the 'New Women' as more than merely writers of fiction." -- Margaret D. Stetz, Mae and Robert Carter Professor of Women's Studies and Professor of Humanities, Department of Women & Gender Studies, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware, USA

"Professor Murphy's Anthology of New Woman Poetry is an astounding work of original scholarship and synthesis. It opens up a world of witty, moving, and profound poetry by late nineteenth-century authors, and analyzes the issues facing turn-of-the century (and later) women. All who care about Victorian literature, poetics, or women's issues then and now will benefit from this important work. New Woman Poetry would be an excellent text for graduate or undergraduate courses, and would serve as an important reference work in its field." -- Florence Boos, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, USA

This well-chosen collection of poems, with its useful thematic groupings and lively introduction, will prove to be a valuable scholarly resource. Murphy has done well to provide a fresh perspective on the figure of the New Woman. -- Dr. Veronica Alfano, Lecturer, Discipline of Literature, Macquarie University, Australia.

About the Author

Patricia Murphy is Professor Emerita in English at Missouri Southern State University. She has written extensively on Victorian literature.