In the history of women, there is probably no matter, apart from contraception, more important than literacy.- Joan Acocella, lobbing a grenade in the opening paragraphs of her fascinating New Yorker review of Belinda Jack's The Woman Reader, on “the slow process by which women took up books and pens” -- the development not merely of literacy among women but reading. (New Yorker articles online are behind a pay wall; if you're not a subscriber, consult your local public library or physician's waiting room.)
For what it's worth, the cover date of the issue with Acocella's article is the day before 15-year-old Malala Yousufzai was shot in the face by a member of the Taliban in Pakistan for the crime of advocating education for girls.
Young Jane Eyre got off easy; they only locked her in a room.
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