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I think this book will be a great addition to our library--primarily, because academia is currently turning toward a trend where more "average lives" are explored rather than major players (like Shakespeare). This book paints a great portrait of four women who existed alongside Shakespeare and published in their own right. Although the women are upper-class and do not totally fit the narrative for an "average life," I think this title will really appeal to students wanting to explore a broader understanding of Renaissance history and women.

Shakespeare's Sisters: How Women Wrote the Renaissance by Ramie Targoff is a great nonfiction that highlights a few of the talented female authors in the 17th century England.

This is such a wonderful collection of female authors, some more well-known than others, that lived during the Renaissance era in England.

It was fascinating to learn more about these talented women, as well as more about British society and history, through their lives and experiences.

There are so many authors, especially those of women, that are pushed off to the side and are forgotten. They deserve a chance in the spotlight, and it is clear from the extensive research, that this author has succeeded in that endeavor.

5/5 stars

Thank you NG and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor, Knopf for this wonderful arc and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.

I am posting this review to my GR and Bookbub accounts immediately and will post it to my Amazon, Instagram, and B&N accounts upon publication on 3/12/24.

I've read a lot about the history of England in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and this book was full of new information about one woman I'd heard of and three I had not. I knew who Mary Sidney was, and that generally she was a writer like her brother had been, but that was about it. In addition to filling out the picture of her life and what writing she did, Targoff introduces the reader to three other women you're not likely to have encountered before. In each case, writing was just part of an extremely eventful life in Tudor and Stuart England, and each woman was an active and vital personality.

You won't come away from this book with much idea of what these women's writing was like, but that was not Targoff's purpose. In her epilogue she lets you know what has been published and when, so you can go read more if you want. I guess I should not be surprised that their work was not even known, let alone published, until extremely recently.

The book is very well written, and when I read the acknowledgements and saw that I know the copyeditor, I could see why! I did spot one factual error that might have been corrected in a final careful read: at one point, discussing an event in 1599, Elizabeth is referred to as "the 62 year old queen" but having been born in September 1533 she was 65 or maybe 66.

While perhaps there was a little more extended description of funeral processions of royalty than I needed, the book was also a smooth and quick read. It's hard to know given the overall context of their lives how much each of these women was committed to her craft, but clearly they were proud of and dedicated to the quality of what they did write. Mary Sidney's psalm translations and Elizabeth Cary's dramas sound the most interesting. Aemilia Lanyer's poetry has been misunderstood and mistreated for years because of a couple of outdated and poorly supported assertions that she might have been Shakespeare's 'dark lady' (assuming he even had one). And Anne Clifford was just formidable, no other word for her. I'd like to read more books like this one, please!

A beautiful masterpieces honoring women of the Renaissance time and their contribution to literature. A moment for four women to shine in their art and work in a time where this was not accepted. A female perspective on a historical time.