The Introduction is subtitled "Before Miss Burney." While many authors are discussed, special focus is given to Burney, Austen, Charlotte Bronte, and George Eliot. Johnson credits women with developing and perfecting the "domestic novel," with making circulating libraries respectable, and with "establishing the right, and the power, of women to write fiction," as well as with the creation of novels for young people and the "national" novel. He credits women writers with the main progress in fiction between Richardson and the 19th century, through their focus on human nature and everyday life. While Dickens and Thackeray followed women's lead, they did not succeed in achieving women writers' level of art. He all but states that these women write as a political act. Appendix "list of minor writers" and Index. W. Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. London. 1918. Hb. USED. $40.00
