Sister Novelists

Book cover of Sister Novelists: The Trailblazing Porter Sisters, Who Paved the Way for Austen and the Brontes

Book description

For readers of Prairie Fires and The Peabody Sisters, a fascinating, insightful biography of the most famous sister novelists before the Brontës.

Before the Brontë sisters picked up their pens, or Jane Austen's heroines Elizabeth and Jane Bennet became household names, the literary world was celebrating a different pair of…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Sister Novelists as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Tyler R. Tichelaar

Author

Jane and Maria Porter were the true founders of the historical novel, but they remain in the shadow of Sir Walter Scott.

This book is the first full-length biography of the sisters and how their novels, including The Scottish Chiefs (Jane) and The Hungarian Brothers (Maria) were forerunners of the genre. In my opinion, The Scottish Chiefs equals or excels anything Sir Walter Scott wrote. Looser does a wonderful job of making the sisters feel like real people through her extensive research and quoting from their letters.

We feel sympathy for the sisters who felt compelled to write to support…

From Tyler's 3 favorite reads in 2023.