Swift and Women Critics

AbstractAnecdotal proofs state that women read Swift and commented on his writings from the time his texts were first published, but the systematic attention that results in a book-length critical study would not be made until the 20th century. Some 19th-century essayists, such as Anna Jameson, Margaret Wood, Margaret Oliphant, and Lady Wilde, were drawn, like their male counterparts, to ponder the by-then infamous triangle of Swift, Stella, and Vanessa without being similarly drawn to any analysis of Swift's writings. However, in the latter part of the 18th century, the popular writer of conduct literature, Mrs. Hester Chapone, studied one of Swift's texts, the Letter to a Young Lady, on Her Marriage, in her own letter of advice addressed to a newly married niece. Chapone's Letter to a New-Married Lady reaffirms the commitment to female subjection and obedience in marriage.