Wonder Of Women - The Darker Sex: Celebrate the true pioneers of female literature

In the days when Britain ruled the waves and bestrode the world as its policeman and plunderer in chief it also subjugated half of its own people to second class status. Women were chattel and property. There were some exceptions based on wealth and birthright but for the overwhelming majority your lot was to fall in with the rules and do as you were told. Many did.

But whilst male society sought to place obstacles in the path to equality, it could not deny their literary talents, which many times they circumvented by using male pseudonyms. However, the soaring sales of magazines and periodicals during the Victorian Age meant they had voracious appetites for literature, whatever the sex of its gender.

Dozens of authors appeared to fill the need. Narratives had new ideas. Characters were emboldened by societal changes and the female voice taking responsibility.

The women included here are talents that dazzle. Put them up against anyone and they rise to the top. Whether they remain with an avid readership today or faded to obscurity with the passing of the times their quality remains undimmed.

1 - Women of Wonder - The Darker Sex - An Introduction

2 - The Lifted Veil - Part 1 by George Eliot

3 - The Lifted Veil - Part 2 by George Eliot

4 - John Charrington's Wedding by Edith Nesbit

5 - Luz by Elinor Mordaunt

6 - Lena Wrace by May Sinclair

7 - Tamar by Lady Eleanor Smith

8 - Sylvia by Bessie Kyffin Taylor

9 - The Old Nurse's Story by Elizabeth Gaskell

10 - In the Mist by Mary E Penn

11 - In the Séance Room by Lettice Galbraith

12 - Behind the Curtain by Gertrude Barrows Bennett writing as Francis Stevens

13 - Behind the Wall by Violet Jacob

14 - Under The Electrics by Clotilde Graves writing as Richard Dehan

15 - The Face in the Glass by Mary Elizabeth Braddon

16 - The Strange Looking Man by Fanny Kemble Johnson

17 - The Three Kisses by Violet Quirk

18 - The Last of Squire Ennismore by Charlotte Riddell

19 - Since I Died by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps

20 - The Devil's Mother-in-Law by Fernan Caballeron

21 - In Dark New England Days by Sarah Orne Jewett