Jane Anger

Who is Jane Anger?

Jane Anger was an English author of the late sixteenth century. The only evidence of her extant is Her Protection for Women, a pamphlet published in London in 1589, of which only one original copy survives. The full title is Jane Anger her protection for women, to defend them against the scandalous reportes of a late surfeiting lover, and all other like venerians that complaine so to bee overcloyed with women's kindnesse.

While her name is possibly pseudonymous, Anger is a legitimate English surname and there is some internal evidence that it may be genuine, as may the claim of being a gentlewoman: the Latin tags, various citations, and knowledge of history all indicate an educated writer.

Jane Anger was responding directly to Thomas Orwin's Boke His Surfeit in Love, with a farwel to the folies of his own phantasie. She argues that men only see women as objects of sexual desire, and that once that desire is satisfied, they abandon them. The Protection combines classical myths with vernacular polemic.