No single library on the planet can stand besides this unique collection of writings by and about extraordinary women of the British Isles. WOMEN'S WORKS, Volume 1, gathers the best in women's literature from the Celts and Anglo Saxons through the six wives of Henry VIII; with astonishing glimpses into the private lives of queens, midwives, heretics and nuns. Volume 2 covers the reigns of queens Jane (9 days), Mary, and Elizabeth I, with selections from wits, witches, and lovers. Volume 3 provides a rich assembly of women poets, playwrights, and proto-feminists of the Jacobean period. And Volume 4 presents a gallery of female poets, lovers, rebels, and wits of the Caroline and Civil War eras. Twenty-five years in the making, WOMEN'S WORKS sets forth a thousand years of women's history, from women's point of view, much of its content supplied by previously unpublished manuscripts (in modern spelling) and a lively commentary throughout, by leading scholars who actually know how to write. (Review) Illustrated. 8x10 440 pp.

WOMEN'S WORKS is simply breathtaking. Not in its concept - we have long needed, and said we have needed, a thorough anthology of the best writing of Medieval and Renaissance English women ... - but in its execution. Foster has gone (as others have not) to every manuscript systematically. He has worked out stemma, textual variants, and the like. And he has prepared, for the first time, a work that is authoritative and comprehensive, complete and final. It will not, because it cannot, be superseded." (Review)

Volume 4. "This collection is a revelation, even to those of us who have long been interested in women's writing. From now on, it will be an indispensable resource." -Phyllis Rackin, Professor of English emerita and past president of the Shakespeare Association No single library on the planet can stand besides this unique collection of writings by and about extraordinary women of the British Isles. WOMEN'S WORKS, Volume 1, gathers the best in women's literature from the Celts and Anglo Saxons through the six wives of Henry VIII; with astonishing glimpses into the private lives of queens, midwives, heretics and nuns. Volume 2 covers the reigns of queens Jane (9 days), Mary, and Elizabeth I, with selections from wits, witches, and lovers. Volume 3 provides a rich assembly of women poets, playwrights, and proto-feminists of the Jacobean period. And Volume 4 presents a gallery of female poets, lovers, rebels, and wits of the Caroline and Civil War eras. Twenty-five years in the making, WOMEN'S WORKS sets forth a thousand years of women's history, from women's point of view, much of its content supplied by previously unpublished manuscripts (in modern spelling) and a lively commentary throughout, by leading scholars who actually know how to write. (Review) Illustrated. 8x10 440 pp.