SOURCE: "A Byzantine Bluestocking: Anna Comnena," in The Quarterly Review, Vol. 233, No. 462, January, 1920, pp. 62-81.

In the following excerpt, Miller provides an overview of Anna's life: her family history, her education, and her importance as historian and historical geographer.

One of the differences between classical and modern literature is the rarity of female writers in the former and their frequency in the latter. While we have lady historians and poets in considerable numbers, while the fair sex has greatly distinguished itself in fiction, including that branch of it which is called modern journalism, ancient Greek letters contain the names of few celebrated women except Sappho, Myrtis and Corinna, the competitors of Pindar; Erinna, whose poetic fancy her mother strove to restrain by chaining her to her neglected spinning-wheel; and Elephantis, whose poetry was considered too realistic for display upon drawing-room tables. Novels were in those days chiefly written...