. This extract from George Eliot"s essay, Silly Novels by Lady Novelists, was once used as a Paper 1 text many, many years ago (before the IB changed the English A courses in 2013). Silly Novels by Lady Novelists by George Elliot But it is a mixture of all these—a composite order of feminine fatuity—that produces the largest class of such novels, which we shall distinguish as the mind-and-millinery species. Chapter Forty- eight From Silly Novels by Lady Novelists (1856) George Eliot The association of women with "silly" romances has a long tradition, as we can see in this highly critical essay by one of the great novelists of the nineteenth century. rather harshly) to George Eliot's essay 'Silly Novels by Lady Novelists', which was pub­ lished in the Westminster Review in October 1856. Calling her a great female writer—even the greatest—may be an insult to George Eliot. There’s nothing wrong with that, exactly—except for the fact that I happen to know that there are a ton of very funny novels by women out there, being ignored by the Funny Book Canon. My examination of the fashionable annuals of the early Victorian period, followed by a consideration of George Eliot’s mid-century attack on ‘silly novels’, demonstrates that the cultural criteria through which intellectual arbitrators delineated high art could be particularly disadvantageous to … Welcome to /r/literature, a community for deeper discussions of plays, poetry, short stories, and novels. Argument 1: This can be seen through the way these “lady novelists” fail to express their in-depth skills of language in their writings. Among these critics are some who argue that Eliot undermines the position of women by calling a certain class of novels 'silly'. Describing the silliness and feminine fatuity of many popular books by lady novelists, George

Read Book Review: Silly Novels by Lady Novelists by George Eliot. While it is unlikely a text like this would appear on a Paper 1 nowadays, it is still an interesting and fun extract to use with students, thanks to its provocative title, subject matter and acerbic wit. Eliot distanced her own work from that of other writers of her sex, deriding "silly novels by lady novelists", purportedly even criticizing the celebrated Jane Austen for dealing with trivialities. Silly Novels by Lady Novelists Thesis: From George Eliot’s Silly Novels by Lady Novelists, I believe that the author was trying to convey the message that these “silly novels” are misleading works used by lady novelists as a tool of mockery.

Discussions of literary criticism, literary history, literary theory, and critical theory are also welcome--strongly encouraged, even.

Your Nora Ephrons, your Sloane Crosleys, your various female comedians who have written bestsellers.