Notes on 'Eve Bites Back' by Dr. Anna Beer

A review

Beer’s book explores the lives and works of (mainly) overlooked female writers from the late Medieval period to the 19th century. These authors, even if they were popular, were often lauded as sensationalists or, in my very favourite piece of literary trivia, prostitutes. This was a running theme throughout the book, presenting how, no matter the period, women selling their words was constantly likened to women selling their bodies. It is this idea of sexual looseness that the author consistently referred to, reminding the reader even if it had only been a few pages since it was last mentioned. Whilst I found it good to have a running theme throughout the book, to tie the writers together as well as express how no matter the period women were still treated the same, Beer didn’t need to explain it every time it reared its head in the narrative.  
 

However, I did think that the nuance of the authors she included was helpful, presenting the many different genres these women wrote in. From melodrama and mystery to religious musings, the sheer scope enabled Beer to go against stereotypes imposed on writers about how their gender correlates to the type of literature they produce. Subsequently, the inclusion of this argument allowed Beer to bring up the important question of whether it is better to write for the ‘female audience’ of the time in order to fit in, yet still be deemed trivial with your integrity as a writer questioned by a male-heavy writing community that preferred to criticize others’ work rather than write their own, or to write for the, typically, male audience and be perceived as intelligent, yet face harsh criticisms and have people question if you were to one to write the book in the first place. It isn’t much of a choice, as either way you would be going outside the gender roles set and selling your words, therefore your body. What Beer fails to point out is how this choice of topics could be up to the individual preferences of the writer in question.

Another argument touched on by Beer is how these writers were not writing for us, in the future, they instead wrote for a contemporary audience and, with any luck , themselves. However, money also plays a large factor in literary freedom as well. Anyway, Beer could have extended this argument to touch on how we project onto figures of the past to suit our opinions, specifically, of what we think a rebel ought to be. It is a weird yet common thing to question very personal aspects of these people’s lives as a way of projecting onto them our own ideas as way to create our role models. In the end, there’s not much issue in doing this except it draws the focus away from the author’s work, instead focusing on their lives.  

Beer’s nuance in portraying many genres of writing extends into exploring the more negative side of these authors. Via including these, Beer refrains from curating unrealistic images for these authors, on top of touching on contemporary issues. An example of this is with the chapter on Mary Wortley Montagu where issues surrounding Orientalism in her work are expressed. Here Beer points out that these writers, though fighting against some issues, were also perpetuating others.  

Alongside these positive aspects of the book, I did find the writing style witty, if a little passive aggressive. However, this is understandable considering the subject that Beer is covering, one filled with frustrating circumstances posed against incredibly intelligent yet normally censored writers. The humor, especially at the start of the book, was quite jarring, but this could be a personal thing.

As previously stated, she could have gone further into detail on some of the arguments and criticism surrounding our modern understanding and images for these authors, but overall, the book was informative and, at the very least, did its job.

It acts a reminder of how history does repeat itself; the same debates about the female authors of each period, the same hatred and disgust, the same falling back onto ideas of religious and sexual purity when these authirs were just writing about how women were treated at the time.

It was an enjoyable reading experience for the most part, and I would recommend it if you’re curious to know more.  

3 1/2 stars. 

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Actual links this time to learn more about the book:

• The book can be found here: Bookshop. org

• A talk she did: 'An evening with Anna Beer'

• Her lecture on the subject: Meeting Minds: Eve Bites Back: An Alternative History of English Literature

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Current Read: ‘Gender Troubles’ by Judith Butler and ‘There But For The’ by Ali Smith

Random Recommendation: gloves, its cold out there.

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Have a good day!

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