Reviews

"Devoney Looser's new study shows us that there's nothing new about disdain for older women. As she illuminates the personal challenges faced by older women writers during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Looser also brings to light a number of fascinating writings produced by her subjects in their late years... This inquiry asks us to rethink literary history in general and women's literary history in particular."

"Compelling and interesting... Like a latter-day Isaac D'Israeli, Looser explores many byways of 18th- and early-19th century authorship and publication. Accordingly, specialists in those periods will find here a trove of useful, thought-provoking historical anecdote."

"So meticulously researched and her prose so pleasantly lucid and unassuming... Looser crafts a convincing argument for the reexamination of women writers like Frances Burney, Maria Edgeworth, Jane Porter, and Anna Letitia Barbauld, paying closer attention to their later lives and works."

"Engaging and clearly written, Looser’s book makes a significant contribution to our understanding of what it meant to be an elderly female writer in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries while also identifying important considerations of fact and methodology often overlooked without the perspective of age studies."

"The book's lively introduction offers plenty of promise. Looser conveys considerable enthusiasm about her subject and the impressive archival research she conducted for Women Writers and Old Age. Throughout the six chapters, Looser maintains a lucid and engaging style that many contemporary scholars might well emulate."

"Devoney Looser is one of the best at bringing together biographical evidence, sophisticated theory, and literary sensibility."

"Devoney Looser has written an extremely important book that sensitively explores ageism and the literary marketplace just when the Mothers of the Novel were writing their final chapters."

"Elegant and original study... Looser not only offers a fresh perspective on individual reputations but raises intriguing questions about the procession of 'generations' in literary history."

"One of the strengths of Women Writers and Old Age is Looser's uncompromising willingness to acknowledge how difficult it was for older women writers to triumph over the cultural forces ranged against them."

"This is a thought-provoking... contribution not only to old age and gender studies but also to the literary history of the long 18th century."

"Wide-ranging and scrupulous book explores a neglected and fascinating subject."

"Although Looser's assumptions may not be shared by every reader, the book is so well informed and ends with such a vast bibliography that everyone stands to learn by it."

"Women Writers in Old Age, 1750–1850, provides a valuable contribution to the nascent field of study."

"With Women Writers and Old Age in Great Britain, 1750–1850... Devoney Looser is one of the best at bringing together biographical evidence, sophisticated theory, and literary sensibility."

"A groundbreaking study of the late careers of women writers."

"A well-written, imaginative, carefully researched, and fascinating study."

"A pioneering effort in what will undoubtedly prove to be another useful perspective from which to consider literary history."

"Groundbreaking in a variety of ways... This work is well written, thoroughly (and pretty amazingly) researched, and presents a convincing critical argument not only for its subject, but also for the continuation of studies about the subject."