A Patch-Work Screen for the Ladies

Jane Barker (1652-1732) was an English poet and novelist of the early 18th century. The Amours of Bosvil and Galesia (1713) was considered her most successful work. A staunch Jacobite, she followed King James II of England into exile at Saint- Germain-en-Laye in France shortly after James' defeat in the Glorious Revolution (1688). During her exile, she wrote a group of political poems, A Collection of Poems Referring to the Times (1701), which conveyed her anxiety towards the political future of England. She later became a novelist and wrote Exilius; or, The Banished Roman (1715), A Patch-Work Screen for the Ladies (1723) and The Lining of the Patch-Work Screen (1726). Barker was never married and her works show a strong lack of interest in marriage. Instead, she sought to challenge the status quo of female subordination.