Eve Bites Back, Anna Beer
Eve Bites Back, Anna Beer
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Eve Bites Back
An Alternative History of English Literature

Author: Anna Beer

Narrator: Anna Beer

Unabridged: 11 hr 31 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/13/2022

Synopsis

Anna Beer investigates the lives and achievements of eight women writers, uncovering a startling and unconventional history of literatureWarned not to write—and certainly not to bite—these women put pen to paper anyway and wrote themselves into history.From the fourteenth century through to the present day, women who write have been understood as mad, undisciplined, or dangerous. Female writers have always had to find ways to overcome or challenge these beliefs. Some were cautious and discreet, some didn’t give a damn, but all lived complex, eventful, and often controversial lives.Eve Bites Back places the female contemporaries of Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Milton center stage in the history of literature in English, uncovering stories of dangerous liaisons and daring adventures. From Julian of Norwich, Margery Kempe, Aemilia Lanyer and Anne Bradstreet, to Aphra Behn, Mary Wortley Montagu, Jane Austen and Mary Elizabeth Braddon, these are the women who dared to write.

About Anna Beer

Anna Beer is a cultural historian and biographer. She is author of Sounds and Sweet Airs: The Forgotten Women of Classical Music and Patriot or Traitor: The Life and Death of Sir Walter Ralegh, as well as biographies of Bess Throckmorton, William Shakespeare, and John Milton. She is a Visiting Fellow at Kellogg College, University of Oxford.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Aviana on March 17, 2023

i support women’s rights, but more importantly i support women’s wrongs. i’ve also started getting targeted ads for the book of margery kempe.......more

Goodreads review by Fatima on February 16, 2023

I now also believe that Aemilia Layner might have been Shakespeare......more

Goodreads review by Libby on March 16, 2025

I do not normally read non fiction but in the spirit of women’s history month I decided to read this book. I wasn’t sure what to expect but I was very impressed! This book told the lives, motivations, and hardships of several women authors thought out history. One of my favorite aspect of this book......more

Quotes

“With just the right amount of humor and righteous indignation, author Anna Beer narrates this fascinating exploration of eight female writers…Listeners will be impressed by Beer’s confident delivery, wit, and humor, which combine to create an informative and engaging listen.” AudioFile

“A delightful and challenging read.” New York Journal of Books

“Eve Bites Back isn’t pleading for justice for female writers, it’s indicting a system that has long ignored them and, to some extent, still does…It’s a work of correction, in every sense of the word.” Washington Post

“In her alternative history of English literature…Beer takes up arms against the patriarchy.” Washington Independent Review of Books

“A thorough, wide-reaching overview of women’s literary accomplishments viewed through a fresh, modern lens.” Foreword Reviews

“Goes a long way to undo the ‘erasure of women’s lives and words’ in this zippy history of early English literature…This feminist corrective sings.” Publishers Weekly

“An informative, enthusiastic and rightly enraging tour de force.” A. L. Kennedy, author of The Little Snake

“A totally absorbing and enlightening tour through the work of eight significant women authors—with one of the funniest introductory chapters ever.” Sarah Bakewell, author of At the Existentialist Café

“Writing with energy, wit and at times barely suppressed fury, Anna Beer brings to life the struggle to be heard of eight women writers over 500 years…a gripping read.” David Goodhart, author of Head, Hand, Heart

“Written with a clear and authoritative voice, this is both a very entertaining and very important book about the many obstacles that women have overcome to be writers.” Yasmin Kahn, associate professor of history, University of Oxford

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