Female Authors of the 19th Century ‘Locked Down’ under Male Pseudonyms

Zara Blakey (MO L6)

For centuries, artists have been using pseudonyms to conceal their true identities. Their motives for doing so can vary tremendously: today, many writers use pen names not wanting to reveal to their colleagues or friends that they write a particular genre, or to protect their work from being scrutinised. When Agatha Christie decided to pursue romance novels, she adopted the name Mary Westmacott, in order to distance herself from the expectations of the fan base for her murder mysteries. Similarly, Stephen King wanted to publish more than one book a year, the amount limited by his publishing agency, and so created the pseudonym Richard Bachman to prevent the King brand from becoming saturated. However, there are undoubtedly many disadvantages to using pseudonyms, as artists can become isolated from their own fame and fortune. In order to explore this theme of isolation when considering the notion of pseudonyms, I have chosen to focus on two female authors of the romantic era who used male pseudonyms to publish their work.

The name George Eliot is one that most will have encountered before; Eliot was one of the greatest authors of the Victorian novel, the aim of which was to explore as richly as possible the raw material of ordinary human life. However, what is often not acknowledged, is that this was simply a pen name. Born Mary Ann Evans in 1819 in Warwickshire England, she published her first work of fiction in 1858, Scenes of Clerical Life, under her male pseudonym. Comparable to Eliot in many ways, French author Amantine-Lucile-Aurore Dupin was born in Paris 15 years prior to Eliot, but likewise rose to fame under the pseudonym George Sand. She represented the epitome of French romantic idealism in the setting of 19th century pastoral life and became notorious for her many love affairs with famous men such as dramatist Alfred de Musset and composer Frédéric Chopin. However, as I will discuss later, she found herself isolated within these very relationships. Sand also presented unconventional iconoclasm to the whole of Europe - a notion which is extremely relevant to the topic of ‘lockdown’, as it is the social belief in breaking icons, or in her case, breaking free of the social norms of her time.

It would seem natural to compare the Victorian novelist with the French Romantic writer since they both lived in the same era, which provided the inspiration from which much of their work stemmed. Exploring interrelations between them leads to wide discussion of their similar yet contrasting views of society: Sand was an eternal Romantic and would often dream of revolutionising society, whereas Eliot was a more rigid intellectual, a realist burdened by moral problems. Through their many differences, there was one issue which interested them both immensely - the role of women in society.

The traditional role of the sexes was deeply influenced by the social, political and economic changes of the 19th century, and the new middle class believed that a woman’s place was at home. Her education must prepare her primarily to become a wife and a mother, whilst literature was believed exclusively to be the business of men. It was therefore evident that the best way for women to avoid the female literature stereotype was to use a male pseudonym. Sand hated being known as a ‘femme auteur’ and even addressed herself as a ‘romancier’ in the masculine form. In a letter written in 1832, she said: ‘Ne m’appelez plus jamais femme auteur, ou je vous fais avaler mes cinq volumes et vous ne vous en relèverez jamais. Ne m’affublez pas de ridicules que je fuis, que j’évite et que je ne crois pas mériter.’ 1 (Don’t ever call me a woman author again or I’ll make you swallow my five volumes and you’ll never recover. Don’t call me ridiculous names that I flee, that I avoid and don’t think I deserve.) Furthermore, in her autobiography, she mentions that her own grandmother was opposed to having her granddaughter’s name in print and advised her to raise her children not to write novels. This is a clear example of being socially ‘locked down’ within the gender norms at that time, since being female was synonymous with writing second-rate literature.

Both authors’ novels tackle the problem from slightly different angles because Sand was more outspoken than Eliot: Sand outwardly expressed her resentment towards the prevailing social order, arguing above all against the marriage laws. She had many manly habits, such as smoking cigars and dressing in suits which were extremely provocative at a time when women were thought to be docile and feminine. This is a clear example of Sand’s attempt to defy the female stereotype; and due to the success of her novels and her immense talent, she won the respect and the admiration of the most famous intellectuals of her time and was treated as an equal with her fellow male writers. This consequently gave her the power to challenge the traditional conception of the sexes.

This contrasts with Eliot who was more implicit in her protests and insisted on creating opportunities for women through education. However, on the whole they both agreed about the fundamental notions concerning the rights of women. They both attempted to disprove the argument of nature, which declared that the sexes were far apart, and women were intellectually inferior. In many ways, Sand was Eliot’s predecessor since Eliot was one of the first female writers to openly critique another woman’s literary works. Her articles pay great homage to Sand and she persuaded many other to follow her example. Through common ground such as this, they seem to unite and bond. Many of their novels have messages which encourage women to be more expressive in their art, not to isolate themselves from their full potential; to break free of this ‘lockdown’ imposed upon females.

Exploring Sand’s love affairs in the real world is also relevant to the theme of isolation and lockdown. At 18 she was married to Baron Casimir Dudevant and had two children. Profoundly unhappy in the marriage, she left her husband 10 years later and began writing out of financial necessity in Paris in 1832. Her first independent novel, Indiana (1832) tells the story of an unhappy wife who struggles to free herself from the imprisonment of marriage, explicitly called a form of slavery. Her ensuing novels, such as Valentine and, most notably, Lelia, shocked the public with her candid exploration of women’s sexual feelings. Through these novels, we can see Sand refuting the idea of women being isolated emotionally as she calls for women’s freedom to find emotional satisfaction.

However, the utilisation of pseudonyms did not come without its drawbacks. In 1857, when Charles Dickens wrote a letter to Eliot expressing his doubts about her gender, she reluctantly maintained the male mask in her reply. This was undoubtedly in part due to the sexism that women writers of the 19th century would have faced, and is an example of how Victorian misogyny caused female artists to remain isolated from their own fame and fortune, not receiving the full recognition of their own true identities.