In a writing career that lasted almost thirty years of the later nineteenth century, Charlotte Dempster published six novels, numerous essays (some of which she re-issued in a collection), a travel-narrative, a cookbook, and a devotional book. Her memoir appeared posthumously and her letters are at the Thomas P. O'Neill Library, Boston College. Her essays often deal with the lives, letters, or memoirs of notable public figures, and her novels deal with issues of class and poverty, public and private obligations, and marital relations, in a wide range of settings.