A solid examination of the lives and careers of several women writers who were contemporaneous with Shakespeare. It would have been nice if these women didn't have to be attached to Shakespeare in any way to get attention, but this is a book for general readers, and I suppose the title has to pander a bit. Readers to new to Mary Sidney, Elizabeth Cary, Anne Clifford, and Aemilia Lanyer will find a firm foundation in this book. I will warn about casual fatphobia and the author's tendency to wallow in the more morbid--and, in relation to her topic, bizarrely emphasized--details of death and funeral rites.

When I saw this title and synopsis, I immediately wanted to read it. I am not normally drawn in by nonfiction, but I love historical feminism and reading historical diaries!

This was a captivating, detailed account of the lives of women writers during the Renaissance and the barriers they faced, even when equipped with wealth and privilege.

I knew of Mary Sidney, but had not heard of the other writers discussed in this book. I found myself deeply inspired by Anne Clifford's dedication to her legacy and getting what was rightfully hers, Mary Sidney's beautiful and invoking psalm translations, Aemilia Lanier's feminist-focused Biblical stories and advocacy for female equality, and Elizabeth Cary's female-led plays!

Did you know Aemilia was the fourth ever published woman writer in England? And that she has been falsely attributed as Shakespeare's lover for hundreds of years?

While dense at times, this is a beautiful read and well-worth your time! There are so many interesting tidbits on culture and traditions; it's absolutely chocked full!

There was no sancitity for women during the Renaissance, even in death and no identity even with status, but still, somehow pen and paper can last lifetimes.

Thank you for NetGalley for a free copy of this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Shakespeare's Sisters by Ramie Targoff is an eye-opening introduction to Renaissance life throught the eyes of intelligent women who lived then. Targoff tells us that probably less than 10% of English women were educated. Each of the women studied learned most of what they knew on their own. They struggled with capricious laws designed to keep them financially dependent on husbands who were much less intelligent than they were. Their writing was often credited to the men in their lives. Most of the women experienced periods of comfortable wealth as well as grinding poverty. Targoff does an excellent job of introducing readers to probabilities where there is no evidence or record to explain events in the women's lives. This is a very readable scholarly work that will entertain and appall.

Thank you for providing an advanced copy of this title.

I think this book will be a great addition to our library--primarily, because academia is currently turning toward a trend where more "average lives" are explored rather than major players (like Shakespeare). This book paints a great portrait of four women who existed alongside Shakespeare and published in their own right. Although the women are upper-class and do not totally fit the narrative for an "average life," I think this title will really appeal to students wanting to explore a broader understanding of Renaissance history and women.

Shakespeare's Sisters: How Women Wrote the Renaissance by Ramie Targoff is a great nonfiction that highlights a few of the talented female authors in the 17th century England.

This is such a wonderful collection of female authors, some more well-known than others, that lived during the Renaissance era in England.

It was fascinating to learn more about these talented women, as well as more about British society and history, through their lives and experiences.

There are so many authors, especially those of women, that are pushed off to the side and are forgotten. They deserve a chance in the spotlight, and it is clear from the extensive research, that this author has succeeded in that endeavor.

5/5 stars

Thank you NG and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor, Knopf for this wonderful arc and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.

I am posting this review to my GR and Bookbub accounts immediately and will post it to my Amazon, Instagram, and B&N accounts upon publication on 3/12/24.

I've read a lot about the history of England in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and this book was full of new information about one woman I'd heard of and three I had not. I knew who Mary Sidney was, and that generally she was a writer like her brother had been, but that was about it. In addition to filling out the picture of her life and what writing she did, Targoff introduces the reader to three other women you're not likely to have encountered before. In each case, writing was just part of an extremely eventful life in Tudor and Stuart England, and each woman was an active and vital personality.

You won't come away from this book with much idea of what these women's writing was like, but that was not Targoff's purpose. In her epilogue she lets you know what has been published and when, so you can go read more if you want. I guess I should not be surprised that their work was not even known, let alone published, until extremely recently.

The book is very well written, and when I read the acknowledgements and saw that I know the copyeditor, I could see why! I did spot one factual error that might have been corrected in a final careful read: at one point, discussing an event in 1599, Elizabeth is referred to as "the 62 year old queen" but having been born in September 1533 she was 65 or maybe 66.

While perhaps there was a little more extended description of funeral processions of royalty than I needed, the book was also a smooth and quick read. It's hard to know given the overall context of their lives how much each of these women was committed to her craft, but clearly they were proud of and dedicated to the quality of what they did write. Mary Sidney's psalm translations and Elizabeth Cary's dramas sound the most interesting. Aemilia Lanyer's poetry has been misunderstood and mistreated for years because of a couple of outdated and poorly supported assertions that she might have been Shakespeare's 'dark lady' (assuming he even had one). And Anne Clifford was just formidable, no other word for her. I'd like to read more books like this one, please!

A beautiful masterpieces honoring women of the Renaissance time and their contribution to literature. A moment for four women to shine in their art and work in a time where this was not accepted. A female perspective on a historical time.