This is a timely and topical anthology offering a broad selection of critical texts - introductions, prefaces, periodical essays, literary reviews - written by British women of the Romantic era.It features a wide selection of critical texts by Romantic British women writers, breaking new ground through its tight focus on the rise of the woman critic. It engages in topical issues such as the emergence of literary professionalism and the role of literature in shaping national character and creating a cohesive nation. It collects together texts that are difficult to access, and provides a helpful introduction, headnotes and annotations to aid understanding and study of the material.This timely anthology offers a broad selection of critical texts - introductions, prefaces, periodical essays, literary reviews - written by women of the Romantic era. The collection offers fuel for some of the most topical debates in British Romantic period studies including professionalism, nationalism and the literary canon.