As a busy author/teacher/mother/wife/trying-to-be-an-individual-also, I haven’t had much time to read of late. But I love listening to audiobooks, and I love the classics, and I especially love the classics when they’re written by women. #shepersisted

So having read Jane Eyre (by Charlotte) a long time ago, I got curious about the “other” Brontës, and decided to try Wuthering Heights by Emily, followed by The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne.

I had tried to read WH once before, but didn’t get into it for some reason. Listening to the audiobook, however, was much better. Still, of the three, I have to say TOWH was the one that truly resonated with me, and struck me as ahead of its time in terms of feminism, yada-yada. It was just such an unusual book, and it made me curious about its author.

Which led me down the Wikipedia rabbit hole, and then down the library rabbit hole, and then I checked out this book (affiliate link):

Dude. It’s 1000 pages long, NOT counting indices, pix, bibliography, etc. I’m not even exaggerating. But OMG it’s fascinating!

Fortunately, it’s also available in e-book. My hands are very grateful, as the library version is of course a hardback, that I’ve been referring to as The Tome. I literally had trouble holding it up while trying to read last night.

But still. A thousand pages. Even on my Kindle, that’s a lot to wade through.

It will be worth it, though. What a fascinating bunch of women! It’s hard to imagine what they went through, purely for the sake of creating, and being taken seriously in a “man’s” world — to the point of using pseudonyms, just to get published.

On the other hand… Despite the #metoo movement, and all that’s been going on, no women directors were nominated for a Golden Globe this year.

In 2018.

Two hundred years post-Brontës.

WTH, world?

Anyway.

Who are the women who have inspired/are inspiring you? What makes you persist in the face of seemingly unsurmountable obstacles? Please share — I’d love to know!