Women Poets in the Victorian Era: Cultural Practices and Nature Poetry

Fabienne Moine, Women Poets in the Victorian Era: Cultural Practices and Nature Poetry. Ashgate, 2015. pp. 314. ?70. ISBN: 14724-6477-4.

Drawing on conceptions of the "feminine" as a literary tactic and social practice as elucidated in her 2010 monograph Poésie et identité féminines en Angleterre: le genre enjeu (1830-1900), Fabienne Moine's new book explores the ways in which Victorian women poets engaged with the topic of nature and with long-standing cultural discourses that posited the existence of a symbiotic 'woman-nature' connection. Admitting that most women poets from this period contributed to enhancing gender divisions, the author concentrates on and singles out those (such as Eliza Cook, Amy Levy, and Michael Field) who challenged cultural constructions in their verses. Her conclusions, reinforced at the end of each chapter, are as clear as the structure of her book, which is cleverly subdivided into micro-sections that facilitate the reader's...