The Most Important Female Author You've Never Heard Of

[@emmie9469]

I study English literature at university and I knew exactly who you were taking about just from your thumbnail, haha. Another very interesting female writer from the same period is Margaret Cavendish, who is credited as being a pioneer of the science fiction genre with her short novel ‘The Blazing World.’ She was also one of the first women to write and publish within the scientific community. But, there are also a lot of amazing female poets from the 16th and 17th centuries, like Katherine Phillips, Mary Sidney, Lady Mary Wroth, Aemilia Lanyer and Isabella Whitney, who I’m pretty sure was one of the first ever female poets to have her works published. It’s a shame all these great female writers are often overlooked and are seen as unfamiliar, unless you actively choose to look into them/study them yourself. Great video :)

[@DrawntoBooks]

Haha, yeah it seems anyone who studied literature in college has probably run across her. I have heard of Cavendish but not many of the others, thank you for sharing your knowledge, more new authors to check out!! 😁

[@emmie9469]

@@DrawntoBooks haha yes, I know. No problem, hope you find something that interests you! They’re all quite diverse in the topics they cover :)

[@Jacob-hr6bq]

❤ I love this community ❤️ 💕 💗

[@Halrax_38]

I actually thought just from the thumbnail and intro that this was going to be about Cavendish

[@acattagite448]

it is really sad that she is so unpopular. literally NO ONE mentions her like ever and the only reason I've heard about her is because we share the same name. thank you for this video! maybe someday she will gain the fame she deserves

[@DrawntoBooks]

Wow, cool, you share your name with a legend!

[@EyeLean5280]

Great video! You're making me want to read The Rover. Another important female author you've never heard of, the one who really did earn us all the right to speak our minds but was almost certainly unknown to Virginia Woolf, was Christine de Pizan. She lived in the Late Middle Ages and was the first woman in the West to earn her living as an author. She wrote on all sorts of subjects but historically her most important work is, "The City of Ladies," the book that kicked off the centuries-long cultural debate known as "the woman question," which ultimately lead to feminism and legal rights for women.

[@DrawntoBooks]

Yay, you should read The Rover! 😁 That’s fascinating, I definitely have not heard of her, going to look her up now 🏃🏻‍♀️

[@oldbooksandroses95]

I was so excited when I saw the thumbnail for this video and realized it was Aphra Behn! I had to read Oroonoko in college and I have only ever heard one other person mention her outside of that class. Thanks for putting together this video and giving Behn the credit she deserves!

[@DrawntoBooks]

It’s crazy no one talks about her. She was such a badass!

[@Sayantika_Sarkar]

Fascinating video! It's unfortunate that many aren't familiar with her work. Her impact on literature is immense, and it's great to see efforts to bring attention to her contributions. Here's to discovering and appreciating hidden literary gems! 📖✨🎉

[@DrawntoBooks]

Glad you enjoyed it, yes, cheers to finding hidden gems, hopefully we discover a lot in 2024! 😁

[@fabrisseterbrugghe8567]

I saw a play by Aphra Behn in the 1980s. It was good. She wrote the 2nd novel ever in English.

[@DrawntoBooks]

That’s awesome! I would love to see one of her plays.

[@intravenousradio]

aphra behn was required reading during my english major senior seminar. fascinating woman, author, and secret agent.

[@DrawntoBooks]

That’s awesome, she’s so fascinating! I feel like people who were lit majors have probably heard of her, but for some reason she hasn’t really entered mainstream conversation.

[@intravenousradio]

@@DrawntoBooks Oroonoko by Behn was the text i enjoyed the most by her. Margaret Cavendish and her Blazing World was also really influential from the same period. a type of proto sci-fi or travel narrative/utopian literature that was really interesting.

[@AntheaChimaera]

I've actually read Oroonoko, years ago as an English major in uni. But apparently I never looked into Behn's biography because I had no idea she was a spy or such a badass playwright.

[@DrawntoBooks]

It seems like lots of people studied her in college, that’s awesome she’s being read! I’m surprised they didn’t talk about her being a spy though, that seems to have made her more famous than any of her writing.

[@Elijah_Gillard]

Thank you for making quality educatinal entertaining content about books, its fantastic

[@DrawntoBooks]

Thank you so much!

[@Juliana-Bub]

I thought everyone knew about Aphra Behn! I'm glad you made this video to help give her the attention she deserves though.

[@paulnicholls3377]

I definitely hadn't heard - now I have. Excellent video

[@DrawntoBooks]

Thank you!

[@litwit2958]

the history of author Fanny Burney is pretty cool too 😊

[@travishiltz4750]

Good video. Very informative. Had heard of Oroonoko, but never read it, and seem to recall she may have shown up in Philip Jose Farmer's Riverworld series. I'll have to track her down. If not her books than at least a biography.

[@simon.voggeneder]

Another great video - short and to the point! I hope it grows your channel. I did not know anything about Aphra Behn and now have a fuller picture of the history of female literature.

[@DrawntoBooks]

Thank you! I dunno if it will grow the channel, it’s a pretty obscure reference, but that’s ok, I had fun researching this little-known author.

[@samuelnissim2371]

Thank you for spreading the word about her, i've been diving more into female authors in history and realized how ignorant i was about all of them and how few mentions they get outside certain circles, and it all can be traced to censure and historical discrimination against women in literature. Really appreciate any media that showcases that.

[@DrawntoBooks]

It really is incredible/appalling how many authors in history deserve to be remembered but are forgotten.

[@badwolftina8716]

I heard about her during one of my English literature lectures at uni. Fascinating woman, she definitely deserves more recognition!

[@scottdelo7798]

Great video. History is full of fascinating people like this who nobody has ever heard of

[@dnckrk1701]

You're right, I've never heard of her. Now I have! Thanks for the video.

[@richard-mtl]

I had no idea. Thank you for educating us!!

[@tijarabilali4109]

Good stuff. Very enlightening and right on time for my research. So good. Thanks.

[@DrawntoBooks]

Yay! Glad I could help.

[@scottandrewhutchins]

I saw another video that literacy back then didn't mean literacy in your native tongue. It meant literacy in classical languages Consequently, the number of people we would consider literate was much higher than they considered literate.

[@scottandrewhutchins]

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[@scottandrewhutchins]

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[@DrawntoBooks]

That’s interesting, I didn’t know that! I’ll definitely check out the video, thanks for sharing :)

[@moshecallen]

Just discovered the channel. (Okay, I watched the Moby Dick video right before this one.) You made one unimportant mistake about that book, but all in all I am thus far impressed. Keep up the good work.

[@DrawntoBooks]

Thank you!

[@janeliu5316]

This was so well researched and presented. Great video!

[@DrawntoBooks]

Thank you so much!

[@Hanfiot]

Great video as usual!

[@DrawntoBooks]

Thank you so much!!

[@atheistsince1210]

Virgins Wolfe committed suicide just after the UK became involved in WWII she stuffed her coat pockets with rocks and drowned herself in an ice cold river back then depression was still a deadly and dangerous mental illness but she lived in an age that prevented therapy . Even when mental illness WAS recognized and treatable , Sylvia Plath one of our greatest US authors and poets committed suicide in the UK. She inherited the depression gene and sadly her second son was afflicted with it and committed suicide as a young PhD marine biologist.

[@atheistsince1210]

The Bronte Sisters and Emily Dickenson are total complete giants of literature and poetry they will NEVER be bested Emily Brontes Wuthering Heights is one of the greatest though strangely enigmatic and existentially surreal novels ever written in ANY language. I have rare sets of both of thier collected works take pride in thier ownership and proudly display my keen intellect on my right shoulder.

[@johancoetser906]

It might interest you that the first known author was a woman, princess Enheduanna c. 2300 BC

[@DrawntoBooks]

Very cool, I did not know that!

[@artlesscalamity]

I remember reading Oroonoko for a world lit class and it stuck with me - not just the background of Aphra Behn but the work itself. Highly recommend to everyone.

[@DrawntoBooks]

Awesome! I bought it while making this video, I’m excited to read it.

[@lornayounger1414]

LOVE Aphra Behn. I read her work in college.

[@rachaelknudsen8801]

I heard her name in the song The Booklovers/The Divine Comedy.

[@DrawntoBooks]

Ok, I had never heard of this, but I looked it up, and it is awesome! Thank you for that :)

[@SoundFuryBookReviews]

I studied her in university and I think the class started with the same quote. Love Armed is one of my fav poems of hers

[@DrawntoBooks]

Thanks for the rec, I haven't read that one, I'm gonna check it out!

[@dhanu_24]

The video made me to subscribe your channel keep do such fascinating videos

[@DrawntoBooks]

Thank you!

[@KitzBeeSeer]

😂 At first I thought you said Virginia Woolf hasn’t been famous!! I was like - I KNOW I’m not in the Matrix…. today. 😂 Seriously though THANK YOU!! I’ve never heard of her til your video. I’m looking for everything on and about her now!! 🙏🏻💃🏼🎊💃🏼❤️💃🏻🎉💃🏽

[@DrawntoBooks]

hahaha, I'm not that crazy 😂 Yay, enjoy the rabbit hole!

[@mangiagatti85]

I am a male graduate of London University 1974-77...& I had heard of & read some Aphra Benn work in that period. She was certainly a very accomplished if controversial writer but she served more importantly I think, as an inspirational figure for female representation in the English theatre...which was almost exclusively a male preserve at Charles II's court of St James...just a stone's throw from His Majesty's theatres...which he frequented with some lustful diligence...being married to Catherine of Braganza who bore him no children & preferred drinking tea to attending theatrical performances by the likes of Nell Gwynn! I realise that she will always be focused upon in studies of Woman's Literature at universities around the world but why on earth did it take so long for another Aphra Benn to emerge from the shadows, given that she had opened the curtains for other female playwrights, poets & novelists? Just asking.

[@DrawntoBooks]

I would venture to guess there were other women writers of Behn’s status in the 18th century, but I’m not well versed enough to name them. But there were also still many barriers, money was just one, but lack of education was another major problem, and women had much less access to education. But it’s always important for people to see examples of people doing the thing they want to do so they know it’s possible. It’s as important today as it was then.

[@mangiagatti85]

In all honesty, I've read Jane Austen's 'oeuvre'!...as I have personal but distant links to her family...and I think 3 of her novels are classics, but 3 were published simply because she had few rivals. (Guess which ones!) Many men in that period had more important matters to deal with than writing prose or poetry e.g Napoleonic wars, (Jane had brothers involved in conflicts that rocked Europe & the empire...a free run to write social 'comedies' set in drawing rooms, coutry houses, balls. with 'cardboard cut-out male figures...& lots of devious women...& not much about the wider world...) 'George' Eliot was far more relevant in her novels...even if she was subjected to prejudice...but she had some pride I think...enough to write sweeping, dramatic novels that dealt with wider issues than dear Jane attempted. Aphra Benn, sadly, was a feminist beacon who shone very dimly it seems. @@DrawntoBooks

[@mariam2964]

​@@mangiagatti85perhaps if women had been allowed to participate in the Napoleonic wars or politics, or indeed in any other part of society, they wouldn't have been limited to "women's" subjects and the accompanying misogyny

[@SevenUnwokenDreams]

Wow, thank you. Possibly you changed my life.

[@denisadellinger4543]

Thanks for sharing. I knew the name but not her time. I have her book but have not read it. I love classics because of women like this. How can we know about them? By making them known. You did a good thing.

[@DrawntoBooks]

Thank you. Yes, we need to bring back some conversation to these legends!

[@nutherefurlong]

So is there any resource on the versions of her writing? Like if there's a quick way to make sure the versions are the originals? Or is it harder than that?

[@margarettee1380]

Brilliant. ❤❤ Just what I have been looking for.

[@DrawntoBooks]

Yay!! I’m glad :)

[@TyrionLannister83]

I've heard of her. She appears in Philip José Farmer's Riverworld series.

[@DrawntoBooks]

I’ve never read that one, but that’s awesome she’s in it!

[@lindaharrison3240]

This made me subscribe.

[@DrawntoBooks]

Welcome, and thank you :)

[@JDesEsseintes-x]

Thank you.

[@scottandrewhutchins]

I saw a production of The Rover. It was OK. It didn't make me want to read more of her work.

[@ChristopheStrobbe]

Thanks for the video. The background music was totally unnecessary, though. (And it didn't fit Aphra Behn's time period.)

[@DrawntoBooks]

That’s fair, thanks for the feedback. I sometimes just get sick of my voice and think I need to spice it up, maybe to my detriment 🤷🏻‍♀️

[@zachreads]

I really really hate the cycle of conservatives wrestling power back every goddamned time we make progress!

[@ruskinyruskiny1611]

More and more men are becoming patient, kind, understanding. All traditionally female qualities. The future really is female. Conservatives better called reactionaries do hinder the progress but everytime a little progress is made.

[@RobertGillham-l5f]

Check out the carreer of Christine di Pisan another Female Author edited out of literary History!

[@maheshkumar-eb1df]

is there any blog of yours?

[@DrawntoBooks]

I don’t have a blog. I have considered it but I’m not sure if people still read/enjoy them.

[@thecritic81]

It is almost unbelievable that you have never heard of Virginia Woolf