50. Literary Sisters, Twisted & Otherwise

AMY: Hey, everybody! We’re back with another Lost Ladies of Lit mini episode. I’m Amy Helmes…

KIM: And I’m Kim Askew. In our last episode, we discussed the first English novelist, Aphra Behn, and I’ll say it again, people: A WOMAN wrote the first English-language novel.

AMY: Woo-hoo! Yeah, I had been taught that it was Daniel DeFoe, but that said, this is a question that continues to be debated, and where you end up probably depends on what you consider to be a “novel.” (Some would argue that earlier works like John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress or even Malory’s Morte d’Arthur qualify.)

KIM: Yeah, I’m sure some people would say that, but I’m going to go with Behn! In any case, she was a ground-breaker, and in our last episode, we talked about her novella The History of the Nun: Or The Fair Vow-Breaker, which features two characters who are “sisters in Christ.”

AMY: Yeah, and before that, we introduced you guys to the Scottish sisters Jane and Mary Findlater and their novel Crossriggs, which features two sisters who had almost nothing in common.

KIM: And let’s not forget at the beginning of the month we talked to the creators of the “Let Genius Burn” podcast about Louisa May Alcott, and she probably created the most famous sisters in all of bookdom.

AMY: So if you’re sensing a theme here, we’ll go ahead and confirm it for you: we are talking “sisters in literature” today. So, Kim, I have two brothers, as you know, so naturally I’ve always idealized the idea of growing up with a sister, like you did. And I do feel like in some ways I missed out on that special brand of sibling camaraderie. I don’t know. Maybe I’m just kind of thinking back to Maud Hart Lovelace’s Betsy books, which we talked about with Sadie Stein, because that had this beautiful, boy-magnet older sister who was so supportive and so nice and so cool! I just felt like it would have been awesome to have Julia as your sister. 

KIM: Yes, it definitely would have. I probably can’t say that I was a sister as nice as Julia. But on the flip side of that, we’ve read a lot of books this year where the sisterly relationships are a LOT more complicated. I mean, think about the novel Anne by Constance Fenimore Woolson. (That was one of our first episodes). Anne’s half-sister, “Tita” is almost malicious -- she’s depicted as this sinister little devil. You just want to scream at some of the crap she pulled.

AMY: And then there are the sisters in Princess Marthe Bibesco’s The Green Parrot, which we discussed back in Episode 23. The girls’ relationship feels haunted and tragic, you know?

KIM: Absolutely. And I think there’s also some unsettling weirdness that abounds in Elizabeth Stoddard’s The Morgesons. The sisters, Cassandra and Verity, in that book have an intense love-hate relationship. They kind of want to claw each other’s eyes out, but you also get the sense they’d defend each other to the death if it came to that. And I kind of get that sort of sibling feeling, I guess.

AMY: Yeah, I guess these books are kind of making me think maybe I’m good with brothers. Less drama! 

KIM: Yeah, I always wanted a brother, myself, just so I would… I felt like I would understand men more if I’d grown up with a brother. But don’t forget; I mean, even the March sisters fought, and they’re pretty perfect, right? And I actually have a sister, as you know, and I love the way those authors we talked about were able to show the complexities of the sister relationship. 

AMY: In thinking about famous sisters in literature, when you start trying to catalogue them, the ones who come to mind right off the bat were all written by women. You know, we have Alcott and her March sisters, obviously. Then there’s Jane Austen’s Bennett and Dashwood sisters. I also think of George Eliot’s Celia and Dorothea Brook in Middlemarch and then, you know, like Laura and Mary Ingalls (who are based on real-life, of course).

KIM: Right. And if we’re going to go dark again, there’s also Constance and Merricat from Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle. And I’ve never read this, Amy, but there’s an Edith Wharton novella with two spinster sisters. It’s called The Bunner Sisters, and it sounds really dark. I’m adding that one to my reading list. And there’s a poem, “The Goblin Market,” by Christina Rosetti all about two sisters, Laura and Lizzy, which you’re very familiar with.

AMY: Yeah, that’s a poem all about the sacrifices sisters make for each other, and I’ll just recite the famous line from this poem having to do with sisters: “For there is no friend like a sister In calm or stormy weather; To cheer one on the tedious way, To fetch one if one goes astray, To lift one if one totters down, To strengthen whilst one stands.”

KIM: Sisters have each other’s backs; end of story. Of course we could come up with sisters in books written by men, too.[Shakespeare had a number of sisters … there’s obviously the “weird sisters” from Macbeth -- maybe they’re not actually sisters -- and then there’s the sisters in Atonement by Ian McEwan, and all the sisters in The Virgin Suicides… But I think you’re right… the ones that you immediately think of, that spring to mind, were created by women.

AMY: I have to wonder if women are just better at writing about this sort of relationship? I feel like it’s just a dynamic women would know well just by virtue of the fact that that are the ones in the relationship, but maybe also because historically, they would be in the sphere of the home and that’s not necessarily an arena that male writers would be as well-versed in or comfortable with examining on a deeper level. I think only the most astute men would be paying much attention to drama centered around the hearth, between women.

KIM: I think when men tend to write about sisters, it has more of a mysterious note… like maybe they’re trying to understand them, study them in some way. Whereas you could argue that the women are portraying something more realistic. I think this idea of “a woman’s place being in the home” also speaks to why a lot of these women writers were forgotten over time. They wrote about “women’s worlds,”... “women’s issues…” “women’s relationships.” 

AMY: Yeah. And it was seen as somehow not important. There was so much  -- half the world was going on in the home, you know? Among women. It’s crazy. But going back to Shakespeare for a second, that’s actually reminding me of Virginia Woolf and her famous work A Room of One’s Own where she talks about “Shakespeare’s sister.”

KIM: Yes, she was writing to answer this question about why history seemed to produce very few “great women writers,” and so she created this hypothetical woman — Shakespeare’s sister, Judith — (Shakespeare really did have a sister but her name was Joan -- and she didn’t write that anyone knows of). But Woolf’s “Judith Shakespeare,” like her “brother,” has a passion for writing, yet at every turn, she is denied the opportunity to do so simply because of her sex. She ends up committing suicide because she sees no path for herself in the world. 

AMY: Woolf also wonders why so many of the great characters in literature (including Shakespeare’s plays) are women, and yet women historically weren’t given an opportunity to write, themselves. She writes: “She pervades poetry from cover to cover; she is all but absent from history. She dominates the lives of kings and conquerors in fiction; in fact she was the slave of any boy whose parents forced a ring upon her finger. Some of the most inspired words, some of the most profound thoughts in literature fall from her lips; in real life she could hardly read, could scarcely spell, and was the property of her husband.”

KIM: Yeah, so it’s easy to see why Virginia Woolf was singing the praises of Aphra Behn — she was one of the few women of her era who was able to do the seemingly impossible. Make a living through her writing.

AMY: Speaking of Virginia Woolf, actually, in doing research for this episode I came across a book that came out a few years ago that sounds like something of interest, and I was wondering if maybe you had heard of it or already read it even. It’s called A Secret Sisterhood: The Literary Friendships of Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, George Eliot and Virgina Woolf. It’s by Emily Midorikawa and Emma Claire Sweeney. (These are two writers who are friends, themselves.) Have you read it? 

KIM: No, but I’m completely intrigued by the book. (And also, Emily is one of our followers. I think she might be one of our listeners. Hi, Emily, if you’re out there.)

AMY: Oh! I didn’t know that!

KIM: Yes. I absolutely want to read that book. It explores some of these great writers’ close female friendships through their letters. Maybe we could have her on for a future episode?

AMY: Yeah, that would be fun. Her and Emma. It sounds totally up our alley. And the title really reminds me that this idea of sisterhood doesn’t need to be limited to siblings. I mean, you’re probably the closest thing to an actual “sister” that I have, Kim… which, you know, come to think of it, maybe means I should come over to your house and raid your closet when you’re not looking, and then never return the clothes.

KIM: Hmm, okay. You’re one of the few people I’d actually let do that! I’ve seen how you keep your closet; it’s pretty neat. So I could go into all the ways you’re like my sister, but I’d probably start crying, so we’ll move on. And maybe now is a good time to share with our listeners the book we’re discussing next week — it centers not around sisters but around a group of cousins, following them from childhood through early adulthood.

AMY: That’s right. Rosamond Lehmann’s Dusty Answer is our book next week, and joining us is Lucy Scholes, a literary critic, who, among other things, writes about forgotten books in her “Re-Covered” column for The Paris Review. (How perfect that she agreed to be our guest?)

KIM: Yeah, and she’s also the host of Our Shelves, the official podcast for Virago Press.

AMY: Oh my gosh — we’re not worthy! I’m so excited she’s coming on! So be sure to meet us back here next week, and in the meantime, don’t forget that we would love to hear from you! So if you want to weigh in with your two cents on any of the books we’ve mentioned today or if you want to point us in the direction of one of YOUR favorite women writers (or one of your favorite “sister” books), we are all ears and would love to have you shoot us an email or connect with us on social media.

KIM: Which reminds me, also, don’t forget to call your sister! Bye, everyone!

AMY: Our theme song was written and performed by Jennie Malone etc.