Originally published in 1923, this book contains short biographies of the lives and works of several nineteenth-century female writers: Jane Austen, the Brontës, Elizabeth Gaskell, George Eliot, Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Christina Rossetti. Bald focuses on the humanity of each woman, and seeks to clarify the characteristics of 'women of literary instinct'. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in female authors and their motivations.