Book Review: A Secret Sisterhood

A Secret Sisterhood

The Literary Friendships of Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, George Eliot, and Virginia Woolf



by Emily Midorikawa, Emma Claire Sweeney

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Biographies & Memoirs

Pub Date 17 Oct 2017

I am reviewing a copy of A Secret Sisterhood Through Houghton Mifflin and Harcourt and Netgalley:

Male literary friendships often become stuff of legends, whereas female authors are often perceived as solitary people, but this book sets out to prove that wrong.

Jane Austen had a close friendship between playwright and female servant Anne Sharp. Mary Taylor’s friendship and works had a great influence over Charolette Bronte’s, shaping her into the author who even centuries after her death has books who have stood the test of time.

Despite George Eliot living in London and Harriet Beecher Stowe in the United States they built a friendship that helped to shape their careers.

Katherine Mansfield and Virgina Woolf are often considered bitter foes, both fighting to build a career for themselves, but letters and diaries offer proof that they infact had a complex friendship.

I give A Secret Sisterhood five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!