Wonder Of Women - The Weird Stories - Volume 1: 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 Weird Stories - Volume 1 - An Introduction

2 - A Haunted House by Virginia Woolf

3 - The Green Bowl by Sarah Orne Jewett

4 - The Cold Embrace by Mary Elizabeth Braddon

5 - The Eyes by Edith Wharton

6 - Hodge by Elinor Mordaunt

7 - The Weird of the Walfords by Louisa Baldwin

8 - Decay by Marjorie Bowen

9 - A Dreamer by Barbara Baynton

10 - Let Loose by Mary Cholmondeley.wav

11 - Where Their Fire Is Not Quenched by May Sinclair

12 - When the Devil Was Well by Gertrude Atherton

13 - With & Without Buttons by Mary Butts

14 - Couching at the Door by D K Broster

15 - The Open Door - Part 1 by Margaret Oliphant

16 - The Open Door - Part 2 by Margaret Oliphant