Description

Bloomsbury presents Sister Novelists by Devoney Looser read by Larissa Thompson

Choice Outstanding Academic Title 2023

For readers of Prairie Fires and The Peabody Sisters a fascinating insightful biography of the most famous sister novelists before the Bronts

Before the Bront sisters picked up their pens or Jane Austens heroines Elizabeth and Jane Bennet became household names the literary world was celebrating a different pair of sisters Jane and Anna Maria Porter The Portersexact contemporaries of Jane Austenwere brilliant attractive selfmade single women of polite reputation who between them published 26 books and achieved global fame They socialized among the rich and famous tried to hide their familys considerable debt and fell dramatically in and out of love Their moving letters to each other confess every detail Because the celebrity sisters expected their renown to live on they preserved their papers and the secrets they contained for any biographers to come

But history hasnt been kind to the Porters Credit for their literary invention was given to their childhood friend Sir Walter Scott who never publicly acknowledged the sisters works as his inspiration With Scotts more prolific publication and even greater fame the Porter sisters gradually fell from the pinnacle of celebrity to eventual obscurity Now Professor Devoney Looser a Guggenheim fellow in English Literature sets out to reintroduce the world to the authors who cleared the way for Austen Mary Shelley and the Bront sisters Capturing the Porter sisters incredible rise from when Anna Maria published her first book at age 14 in 1793 through to Janes fall from the pinnacle of fame in the Victorian era and then to the auctioning off for a pittance of the familys massive archive Sister Novelists is a groundbreaking and enthralling biography of two pioneering geniuses in historical fiction