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
Textual Production Mary Howitt
On L. E. L. 's marriage MH took over from her the editorship of the annual or gift book Fisher's Drawing-Room Scrapbook, for which she did much writing; she did not, however, enjoy this work.
Dunicliff, Joy. Mary Howitt: Another Lost Victorian Writer. Excalibur Press of London.
90
Friends, Associates Mary Howitt
In Nottingham MH met L. E. L. and perhaps Elizabeth Fry . She was visited by Mary and Dora Wordsworth (wife and daughter of the poet), and later she and her husband stayed with the...
Intertextuality and Influence Mary Catherine Hume
The starting-point for the poem is the tradition (subtly questioned) of Sappho's suicide as an abandoned woman; this fact links the text to other responses to the topic by other women poets including Felicia Hemans
Friends, Associates Maria Jane Jewsbury
Determined to be a writer, MJJ actively sought literary society. Her other literary friends included author and editor Samuel Laman Blanchard , dramatist James Robinson Planché , the Rev. George Robert Gleig , and Sir Walter Scott
Dedications Maria Jane Jewsbury
In the Drawing-Room Scrapbook for 1839 MJJ published a poem to the annual's former editor: To L.E.L after meeting her for the first time.
Boyle, Andrew. An Index to the Annuals. Andrew Boyle.
154
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Maria Jane Jewsbury
Anonymity gave MJJ freedom to satirize contemporary literary culture—particularly male writers.
Clarke, Norma. Ambitious Heights. Routledge.
36
The Young Author, which first appeared in 1825 in Literary Souvenir, depicts a self-styled genius churning out reviews, album verse, love...
Textual Features Christian Isobel Johnstone
It seeks to enlarge vocabulary by omitting words and leaving the young readers to supply the gaps. Topics include life in other countries. The book features poetry by L. E. L. and Wordsworth .
Intertextuality and Influence Fanny Aikin Kortright
FAK 's literary allusions here are interesting. Thomas Hood 's The Song of the Shirt is cited more than once, though Kortright insists that the governess is worse off than the seamstress because she is...
Intertextuality and Influence Amy Levy
AL acknowledged the influence on her poetry of Percy Bysshe Shelley , Goethe , Heine , Robert Browning , Swinburne (whose poem Félise she answered in Félise to Her Lover), and James Thomson (the...
Friends, Associates Jane Loudon
In London after her father's death, Jane Webb was a frequent visitor to the family of John Martin the artist. His wife, Susan Martin, had special motherly friendship for Jane, shared to some degree...
Textual Production Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington
Marguerite Blessington issued her first number as editor of the Book of Beauty (an annual Christmas gift book, then in its second year); she succeeded L.E.L. in this post.
Adburgham, Alison. Women in Print: Writing Women and Women’s Magazines from the Restoration to the Accession of Victoria. George Allen and Unwin Ltd.
249
Molloy, Joseph Fitzgerald. The Most Gorgeous Lady Blessington. Downey.
233
Health Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington
She was under considerable financial pressure as a result not only of her large entertainments but of dependent family members, pensioned servants, and others whom she aided, including the mother of L.E.L. She wrote to...
Textual Features Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington
In the plot, Jim is suspected in the murder of a policeman, but later becomes sensibly disillusioned with repeal. Grace improves her natural goodness by reading the Bible in an almost Protestant manner. She ministers...
Textual Features Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington
Critic Paula R. Feldman writes that she filled in the gaps in each literary annual with her own poetry or prose.
Feldman, Paula R., editor. British Women Poets of the Romantic Era. John Hopkins University Press.
150
In the Book of Beauty for 1839, for instance, Blessington contributed two poems...
Fictionalization Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
For centuries LMWM has been interpreted and re-interpreted, judged less often as writer than as an exemplar of the unacceptable female. Her fame and/or notoriety flourished during her lifetime, and posthumous publications kept it alive...

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