Page 2 – Belinda Jack – The Woman Reader
One aspect of the history which may be particularly relevant today is the relationship of women and the novel, which occupies a significant part of the story from the seventeenth century on. The novel was criticized, especially as women’s reading material, by both men and women. One man likens novels to “poisonous fungi,” while another argues that romantic love, the subject of novels at the time, is corrupting and that the novel’s focus on women characters gives them too much power. In her memoirs a 19th century American woman blames novels for filling her mind with idealized visions of love that led to her early and unsuccessful marriage, and warns her readers not to indulge in fiction lest they face similar disappointment.
A great strength of The Woman Reader is the inclusion of over sixty paintings and photographs that are truly illuminating. Especially memorable is Antoine Wiertz’s 1853 painting La Liseuse de Romans (or Reader of Novels) in which a naked woman lies reading in an enclosed, private space, while from behind a curtain a horned figure, barely visible, pushes more books her way. The implication that novels may allow women to be dangerously sexually independent is a common one.
Of course others, including men, defended the usefulness of the novel for moral instruction and for the “educational enfranchisement” of women. British novelists such as Jane Austen, Marie Corelli, and Mrs. Humphry Ward wrote with a view to moral nourishment, seeking to redeem the genre from sometimes shocking Continental fiction, rather than reject it altogether. Despite criticism the novel did not go away, and it was mainly women that drove its popularity.
The Woman Reader focuses on Western history, but does note some trends in other cultures. For example, contrary to popular assumption, women did at one time have significant influence in Islam, teaching the Qu’ran and making Islamic law. It is estimated that there were at least eight thousand female scholars going back to the seventh century. However, the last chapter of the book describes some of the obstacles and risks women face today in countries such as Iran and Afghanistan where reading is still a subversive activity.
Today in the Arab world more than half of women are illiterate; in South Asia sixty percent. Even in the developed world women’s literacy rate is lower than men’s although, paradoxically, girls’ performance in US reading tests has been higher than boys’ for decades. And, Jack claims, in all countries of the world women’s average level of literacy is higher than men’s. It would seem, at least in the West, that the battle for women’s literacy has been won. But the question of how women’s reading functions today is not fully explored. For example, if novels are no longer subversive material for women, are we reading anything that is? Or has equal access to education and books mainly served to give us another consumptive activity—reading for entertainment? Jack describes a 2004 British poll which indicated that women read novels as personal sustenance through challenges in their lives, while men prefer novels of ideas which ask “essentially intellectual questions.” Certainly there are many women whose reading enriches their minds or supports their advocacy for the disenfranchised (themselves or others), but I would be interested to know whether this is the exception or the rule.
At times it was difficult to follow Jack’s narrative, as some generalizations were left unsupported, or promises of tracing a certain trend went unfulfilled. Her strength is in preserving the complexity of the story by focusing on the lives and writings of individuals. Although The Woman Reader doesn’t answer every question about what women’s literacy could or should mean, it imparts a sense of camaraderie with courageous woman readers of the past, including those women of the church whose intellectual achievement was crucial to their worship and service, that can serve as a starting place for Christian women today who want their reading to make a difference.
C. Christopher Smith is the founding editor of The Englewood Review of Books. He is also author of a number of books, including most recently How the Body of Christ Talks: Recovering the Practice of Conversation in the Church (Brazos Press, 2019). Connect with him online at: C-Christopher-Smith.com
 Reading for the Common Good From ERB Editor Christopher Smith "This book will inspire, motivate and challenge anyone who cares a whit about the written word, the world of ideas, the shape of our communities and the life of the church." -Karen Swallow Prior Enter your email below to sign up for our weekly newsletter & download your FREE copy of this ebook! |
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