Romantic Women Writers: Voices and Countervoices.

Essay collections run the risk of being, like curates' eggs, good in parts. The good parts of this one make its faintly off parts no matter; as a collection, it has energy, focus, and creative diversity. The editors argue succinctly for the need for Romanticisms, a pluralism in the face of new readings sparked by considerations of gender. Some emphasis is on redressing critical neglect of women writers, but reclamation of the 'new' subtends bigger methodological questions about its shock value.

The editors disclaim a new canon, though Hemans, Barbauld, Baillie, and Robinson are shaping up as contenders. Some established figures appear, like Mary Shelley and Maria Edgeworth, and some imaginative pairings, like Janet Little and Robert Burns, sharing class and politics, divided by his womanizing, his fame, and …