Cranogwen in Victorian Wales - (Gender Studies in Wales) by Jane Aaron (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

During an age of extreme gender polarization when women were confined to the domestic sphere, Sarah Jane Rees (1839-1916) from Llangrannog, better known by her bardic name Cranogwen, won high esteem as a poet, lecturer, journal editor, preacher, and temperance campaigner. She also succeeded in her aim of inspiring other Welsh women to overcome class and gender barriers and enter the public sphere and was therefore hailed as a pioneering forerunner of the "New Woman." Cranogwen in Victorian Wales follows her through the various stages of her career from her early years as a sailor, showing how an underprivileged woman succeeded in winning such influential renown. New light is also thrown on her homosexual love life and her progressive views on gender: "Gender difference is nothing," she proclaimed in 1888. The Welsh-language version of this volume, entitled Cranogwen, won the Wales Book of the Year award for creative nonfiction in 2024.

Review Quotes

"This volume on the poet, women's magazine editor, international public lecturer and political campaigner Cranogwen is a masterclass on linking life and literature, and on presenting poetry in translation. It introduces one of the most charismatic figures of nineteenth-century Wales to an international audience. In lively prose, Jane Aaaron leads us from Cranogwen's childhood in poverty-stricken seaside village Llangrannog to a poetic stardom doubted by male bards: we accompany Cranogwen on lecture tours in north America, campaign with her in the valleys of south Wales, and feel the love she shares with her woman ... in an elegant and multifaceted volume you will read again and again."

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