Discovering Scottish Writers Book

"Nice cover", that was what most people said taking a first glance at this book. However inarguable the argument, one is left with much more think about after reading. At least that was the case with me since I'm new to the gender studies scene and at the beginning some interpretations drawn by Anna Silver seem a little alien. I'm neither an enemy nor an ally of The Patriarchy, but, nonetheless, this work made itself a very entertaining challenge for my bullshit radar. Not that it beeped a whole lot.

It all may appear to you so far like ridiculing criticism, so why the four stars? Actually not for laughs, however far-fetched the connections between cause and effect in the analyses were for me, they were also "logical in its own way", witty and presented quite convincing. I would have to read or re-read the works mentioned in the book to see if the points made by Anna Silver could be understood so obviously in the way proposed. Or if looked at in a different light they would be more plausible and coherent.

I was happy about the language and the way of presenting new concepts. The autor used formal register flexibly and she neither assumed the reader to be omniscient nor stupid. It's quite a pleaseant read in this way.

The title is nicely optimalized in relation to the topics for which it holds promise, the book is, yes, about Victorian literature, but also about women's struggle to gain autonomy through self-discipline and self-control. And by mentioning anorexia nervosa (I guess it is meant to be mainly, but not only, a metaphor) Anna silver links the XIX and the XXIc drawing the similarities and differences between them.

The choice of works is quite comprehensive even if not great in number and it's curious to look at these well-dicussed texts from a slightly different angle.
If you are a gender studies person or an open-minded bystander or even an adversary of GS but intrested in Victorian literature, you stil may find this read good for many reasons.