Great Books by German Women in the Age of Emotion, 1770–1820 by Margaretmary Daley (review)

In this clear and accessible book, Margaretmary Daley presents six case studies.Each chapter is devoted to a single novel.Publication information, plot summaries, and biographies of the novelists appear in an appendix.This arrangement highlights where to find information without overloading the chapters.The selection of authors offers a thoughtful composition of known names alongside lesser-known novelists.With her work centering on German-language novels written by women authors and published between 1770 and 1820, Daley challenges the established literary canon dominated by works from male authors.Although the idea of subverting the canon is not a new one, there is still much scholarly work to be done and Daley's contribution is significant.She articulates the importance of her work herself: "for even today some scholars are still reading, teaching, publishing, buying, and critiquing literature of German Romanticism, or German Classicism or Empfindsamkeit (sensibility) as though it were enough to append a chapter or two on a woman writer" (3).Daley emphasizes that discussing works by women authors is not merely about balancing the lists of male and female authors.Literary works by women authors should be examined because of "the value they offer in their own right" (2).Consequently, she questions the notion that the novels she discusses were excluded from the canon due to a lack of literary merit, thereby exposing gender-based bias (2-3).Her aspiration is to "change [] the parameters of excellence that constitute canon-worthy themes, narratives, and ideas" (9).Daley introduces the term "Age of Emotion" to replace the terms "The Age of Goethe" (contesting the Great Man Theory still existent in some corners of literary scholarship) or "literature around 1800" (3).She argues that her approach takes the "scholarly responsibility to appreciate literature critically" (3), and she aims to overcome gender bias, making the bold proposal to read with empathy and acknowledgement of the emotions within the novels (3).After outlining her methodology, Daley provides a concise overview of the conception of the canon formed both a posteriori and a priori.Interestingly, she notes that the exclusion of women authors is specific to the context of German studies, in contrast to French and English literary studies where Madame de Svign and