Courage and Grief: Women and Sweden’s Thirty Years’ War by Mary Elizabeth Ailes (review)

Abstract

literary production”; importantly, she calls attention to how much is still to be done in this rich field (334). By examining the cases of Katherine Philips, Lucy Hutchinson, and Elizabeth Melville, Jane B. Stevenson productively explores the complicated nature of fame for women authors. Focusing especially on the “transcultural nature of [Margaret] Cavendish’s political writings,” Mihoko Suzuki persuasively demonstrates the vital importance of attending to women’s political writing across the borders of England and France during the mid-seventeenth century, when both nations experienced civil wars (381). Next, Edith Snook’s compelling essay examines Aphra Behn’s works and women’s recipe collections to reveal their engagement with Indigenous forms of medical knowledge. Finally, the volume ends on a strong note with Jessica L. Malay’s analysis of Lady Anne Clifford’s Great Books of Record, which “give unprecedented insight into both the individual Anne Clifford and changes in culture over the span of 600 years” (416). This landmark volume makes crucial contributions not only to the ongoing project of writing women’s literary history, but also to thinking through the methodological complexities regarding how best to do so. It provides valuable insights into the writings of a wide-ranging selection of women and puts them and their works into richly detailed historical context. By making Ezell’s “sparkling multiplicity” (also the title of Phillippy’s introduction) one of its key concepts, it invites and inspires further research in the field. A History of Early Modern Women’s Writing is a must-read for everyone working on early modern women.