Reading, Gender and Identity in Seventeenth-Century England

Offering a more complete picture of women’s reading experiences in seventeenth-century England, this book examines attitudes to women’s reading both within early modern gender discourse and from women readers themselves. It draws on diaries, letters, annotated books and other archival sources to explore the relationship between reading habits and constructing (gender) identity, ultimately questioning the accepted notion of ‘the woman reader’ itself.