In Silly Novels by Lady Novelists, one of George Eliot’s most famous essays, she slammed her sister writers who flooded the market with formulaic romantic novels. They might be the equivalent of today’s trashier romance novels, with more archaic language and no bodice-ripping.

This essay is written in a tone that today might be described as “snarky.” Eliot skewered the popular, frothy women’s novels with their vacuous, heroines and clichéd plots, characterization, and language. Read More→