Masked by Ink: 10 Women Writers Who Hid Behind Male Pseudonyms

April15,2025

A sweeping English novel about provincial life and deep moral questions.

Middlemarch by Mary Ann Evans (pen name: George Eliot) 

A gothic romance that revolutionized first-person narrative and women's inner lives.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (pen name: Currer Bell)  

A dark, haunting tale of love and revenge on the Yorkshire moors.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (pen name: Ellis Bell)  

A semi-autobiographical novel that critiques the mistreatment of governesses.

Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë (pen name: Acton Bell)  

One of the first sustained feminist novels in English literature.

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë (pen name: Acton Bell)  

A ghost story with psychological depth and aesthetic brilliance.

A Phantom Lovern by Violet Paget (pen name: Vernon Lee)  

A powerful critique of the limitations placed on women in marriage and society.

Indiana by Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin (pen name: George Sand)