L. E. L.

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Standard Name: L. E. L.
Birth Name: Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Pseudonym: L.
Pseudonym: L. E. L.
Used Form: LEL
Used Form: L.E.L.
LEL was one of the most prolific and popular authors of her day. She produced an immense corpus of poetry, several works of fiction (the first a particularly striking silver fork novel), and considerable review and editorial work. Her work more than any other popularized the persona of the lovelorn, doomed poetess in the early nineteenth century.
Black and white photograph of a three-quarter length drawing of L.E.L. in chalk and pencil by Daniel Maclise, early 1830s. She is wearing a white dress whose wasp waist is accentuated by a broad belt, large billowing skirt and upper sleeves, and high standaway collar. Her dark, shining hair is centre-parted and pulled back, with tiny kiss-curls below and a tall, plaited arrangement above. Her expression is languishing. National Portrait Gallery.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Performance of text Clara Balfour
CB also spoke frequently on literature, focussing on women writers. In her lecture entitled The Female Poets of England, delivered at the opening of the eighteenth session of the Cheltenham Literary and Philosophical Institution
Leisure and Society Elizabeth Ogilvy Benger
Late in life EOB ran a kind of salon which was remarkable for being bohemian and operating on a shoestring: with tea rather than wine (unlike the lavish salons of contemporary society hostesses like Lady Holland
Family and Intimate relationships Anna Eliza Bray
Ann Arrow Kempe was described by her daughter as shy and tender, with a love of music. L. E. L. remembered her as a charming, kind woman who admired poetry and demonstrated a sincere affection...
Friends, Associates Anna Eliza Bray
This brief marriage brought Anna Eliza a number of literary friendships: with Sir Walter Scott , Amelia Opie , Letitia Elizabeth Landon , John Murray , Robert Southey , and later with Southey's second wife,...
Friends, Associates Anna Eliza Bray
Owing to her nervousness and delicate health AEB did not socialize much; her literary friends were few though deeply valued, including L. E. L. , John Murray , Owen Rees , and Anna Maria Hall
Literary responses Anna Eliza Bray
L. E. L. contributed what AEB felt to be an ably-written review to the Literary Gazette.
Bray, Anna Eliza. Autobiography of Anna Eliza Bray. Editor Kempe, John A., Chapman and Hall.
328
In a letter dated 21 January 1838, Robert Southey wrote that it was a very agreeable disappointment...
Friends, Associates Mary Ann Browne
MAB had already met L. E. L. and Mary Russell Mitford .
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
She now met the Chorley family, Shelton Mackenzie of the Dublin University Magazine, and other figures in Liverpool literary society. She presumably...
Textual Production Mary Ann Browne
She quotes L. E. L. on her title page, and dedicates her work (these early efforts of my timid Muse)
Browne, Mary Ann. Mont Blanc. Hatchard and Son.
v
to Princess Augusta Sophia . A preface by an unnamed male friend...
Intertextuality and Influence Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Byron and Wordsworth were important poetic influences. Books that Elizabeth Barrett owned and kept until her death included Philip James Bailey 's Festus, A Poem, a major text of the spasmodic school, L. E. L.
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Elizabeth Barrett Browning
The title piece is a lyrical drama depicting, largely in the form of a conversation between two angels, the crucifixion of Christ. Among the accompanying pieces were several on literary personages or topics: To Mary Russell Mitford
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Shorter pieces here include many sonnets, the most striking and complex of which are perhaps the two dedicated to George Sand that explore the apparent contradictions of gender and genius. To George Sand. A Desire...
Intertextuality and Influence Lady Charlotte Bury
The title-page quotes some lines from Robert Burton 's Anatomy of Melancholy which begin, When I go musing all alone.
Bury, Lady Charlotte. "Alla Giornata"; or, To the Day. Saunders and Otley.
title-page
This is a novel of cosmpolitan culture, set in fifteenth-century Italy. The quotation...
Publishing Mary Maria Colling
The full title reads Fables and other Pieces in Verse . . . With some account of the author, in letters to Robert Southey Esq. . . . by Mrs. Bray. The dedicatory poem...
Literary responses Eliza Cook
A short and patronising notice of the volume in the Athenæum characterized EC as a sort of L. E. L. for the working classes writing for the not very select readers of a provincial newspaper...
Literary responses Eliza Cook
An 1848 preface to a US edition of her poems ranked EC 's popularity almost as high as that of Felicia Hemans or Caroline Norton . It characterises her work in terms of emotion and...

Timeline

January 1833: The annual Heath's Book of Beauty began publication;...

Writing climate item

January 1833

The annual Heath's Book of Beauty began publication; the first number was edited by L. E. L.

Texts

L. E. L.,. A Birthday Tribute. Fisher, 1837.
Staël, Germaine de. Corinne; or, Italy. Translators Hill, Isabel and L. E. L., R. Bentley, 1833.
Staël, Germaine de. Corinne; or, Italy. Translators Hill, Isabel and L. E. L., A. L. Burt, 1857.
L. E. L.,. “Critical Materials”. Letitia Elizabeth Landon: Selected Writings, edited by Jerome McGann and Daniel Riess, Broadview, 1997, p. various pages.
L. E. L.,. Critical Writings by Letitia Elizabeth Landon. Editor Sypher, Francis Jacques, Scholar’s Facsimilies and Reprints, 1996.
L. E. L.,. Duty and Inclination. H. Colburn, 1838.
L. E. L.,. Ethel Churchill. H. Colburn, 1837.
L. E. L.,. Ethel Churchill. Editor Sypher, Francis Jacques, Scholar’s Facsimiles and Reprints, 1992.
L. E. L.,. Flowers of Loveliness. Ackermann, 1838.
L. E. L.,. Francesca Carrara. R. Bentley, 1834.
L. E. L., and Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington, editors. Heath’s Book of Beauty. Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longman.
L. E. L.,. “Introduction”. The Fate of Adelaide, edited by Francis Jacques Sypher, Scholars’ Facsimiles and Reprints, 1990.
L. E. L.,. “Introduction”. Poetical Works of Letitia Elizabeth Landon "L.E.L.", edited by Francis Jacques Sypher, Scholars’ Facsimiles & Reprints, 1990, pp. 9-22.
L. E. L.,. Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. Henry Colburn, 1842.
L. E. L.,. Letitia Elizabeth Landon: Selected Writings. Editors McGann, Jerome and Daniel Riess, Broadview, 1997.
Blanchard, Samuel Laman, and L. E. L. Life and Literary Remains of L.E.L. H. Colburn, 1841.
L. E. L.,. Poetical Works of Letitia Elizabeth Landon. Editor Sypher, Francis Jacques, Scholars’ Facsimiles and Reprints, 1990.
L. E. L.,. Romance and Reality. H. Colburn and R. Bentley, 1831.
L. E. L.,. The Easter Gift. Fisher, 1832.
L. E. L.,. The Fate of Adelaide. J. Warren, 1821.
L. E. L.,. The Fate of Adelaide. Editor Sypher, Francis Jacques, Scholars’ Facsimilies and Reprints, 1990.
L. E. L.,. The Improvisatrice. Hurst, Robinson, 1824.
L. E. L.,. The Troubadour. Hurst, Robinson, 1825.
L. E. L.,. The Venetian Bracelet. Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, 1829.
L. E. L.,. The Vow of the Peacock. Saunders and Otley, 1835.