'Silly Novels by Lady Novelists’ in The Westminster Review

October, 1856

Storage Journal AP 4 W47 Ser. 2, V.10

London: John Chapman

Founded by the Utilitarians Jeremy Bentham and James Mill, the Westminster Review (1824-1914) was known primarily for its social and political engagement. It was neither popular nor successful in its early years. By the 1850s, the Westminster had become a respected journal, noted for its intellectualism. The writer George Eliot was assistant editor from 1851 to 1854, although she had in reality done most of the editorial work herself. ‘Silly Novels by Lady Novelists’ was one of her last essays for the Westminster, and it sought to expose the ridiculous nature of many works for and by women, a concern to which she was to return in her fiction.