Review Essay: Virago Press

BOOK REVIEWS Review Essay: Virago Press Carol A. Martin Boise State University Circulating libraries are recruited most largely by our Lady Novelists, and, for some time past, it has been Figaro's custom, impelled thereto by gallantry to the fair sex, to devote a special portion of his reviews of books to those that are penned by the ladies. It is not given to every Lady Novelist to be a Braddon, a Currer Bell, or a George Eliot; and, therefore, we do not select our works for review from only the foremost feminine writers of the day; for, to do so, would be unfair to those who are still labouring to win reputation and fair fortune through the medium of literature. The novels that come to us for review shall be carefully read and impartially criticised. Some may be good; others may be bad; more may be indifferent. We will not 'pick and chuse,' but 'take them as they come,' as the countryman observed when scratching his poll. Figaro, October 12, 1872, 645-46. Thus an anonymous reviewer for the London weekly billed as "A Political, Literary, and Critical Journal," began his comments on three novels — by Mrs. Eiloart, Mary Healy, and Mrs. Godfrey — and in doing so noted the fact of an enormous body of literature by women in the nineteenth century. And though Mary Elizabeth Braddon has only recently returned to a small portion of the great popular acclaim she received in the second half of the last century, and Currer Bell has been discarded as a pen name in favor of "Charlotte Brontë," and the Figaro reviewer's three novels, all of which he praised — A Woman's Wrong, A Summer Romance, and Loyal, respectively — have been as little heard of, in the twentieth century, as their authors, it has become the custom of many of us who want to read some of that early women's fiction, long unavailable, to watch the shelves of our favorite book store for the familiar green covers of Virago Press titles. The brainchild of Carmen Callil, a native Australian of Irish and Lebanese heritage who has lived in London for the past 20 years, Virago was founded in 1972 to make available a wide range of books about women's lives. The name has given renewed life to the original meaning of the word virago — "a man-like, vigorous, and heroic woman; a female warrior; an amazon," all now "rare" usages, according to the OED. Unlike the Figaro reviewer quoted at the outset who promises to cover women's books good, bad, or indifferent, Virago from the start sought out the best of women's writings, and writing about women as well; their lists include new fiction as well as the Virago Modern Classics, poetry, and Virago Non-Fiction Classics, which cover women's travel books, autobiographies, diaries, and many other areas. In 1982, Virago, already successful financially, joined the Chatto, Bodley Head, and Cape Group, a holding company that gives Virago complete editorial independence. Their books are distributed in Europe, Asia, Australia, and Africa; in the U.S. several 235 236Rocky Mountain Review companies distribute for Virago. The U.S. rights for the Chronicles of Carlingford are being handled by Viking Penguin. In addition, Virago has recently opened a book store of its own on Southhampton Street, just off Covent Garden, where the first floor features the latest Virago books and works in the same general subject category by other publishers, and the basement contains second-hand books by and about women as well as space for women's art exhibitions; the shop assistant was helpful in digging out of the storeroom early copies of Oliphant's books, which were due out in August but hadn't surfaced, by mid-month, at any of the other London book shops in which I had been looking for them. The choice of titles to review here is a somewhat arbitrary one, based on my own interest in nineteenth-century fiction, but also on what many colleagues have professed to be their special reason for looking automatically for the Virago display when they enter a book shop — the reprinting of many splendid...