Full Description
As the book's provocative title indicates, a woman reading was once viewed as radical. In chapters - such as: Intimate Moments and The Search for Oneself - Bollmann profiles how a woman with a book was once seen as idle or suspect and how women have gained autonomy through reading over the years. Bollmann offers intelligent and engaging commentary on each work of art in Women Who Read Are Dangerous, telling us who the subject is, her relationship to the artist, and even what she is reading. With works ranging from a 1333 Annunciation painting of the angel Gabriel speaking to the Virgin Mary, book in hand, to 20th-century works, such as a stunning photograph of Marilyn Monroe reading Ulysses, this appealing survey provides a veritable slideshow of the many iterations of a woman and her book; a compelling subject to this day.
An excellent gift for graduates, teachers, or Mother's Day, this elegant book should appeal to anyone interested in art, literature, or women's history.
Contents
Foreword by Karen Joy Fowler 11
Women Who Read Are Dangerous
An introduction 19
Where the Word Lives
Blessed readers 39
Intimate Moments
Enchanted readers 49
Abodes of Pleasure
Self-confident readers 59
Hours of Delight
Sentimental readers 71
The Search for Oneself
Passionate readers 83
Little Escapes
Solitary readers 107
