Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Harriet Beecher Stowe
-
Standard Name: Stowe, Harriet Beecher
Birth Name: Harriet Elizabeth Beecher
Married Name: Harriet Elizabeth Stowe
HBS
is best known for the highly sentimental and influential anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, although she also authored several other novels, short stories, children's stories, pamphlets, a good deal of journalism, and a biography of Lady Byron
(mother of the mathematician and scientist Ada Byron, Lady Lovelace
). Much of her journalism was evangelical in tone. HBS
's reputation peaked with Uncle Tom's Cabin, after which her cultural standing declined.
Writing of Bunyan's near-universal appeal, MR cites the many remarkable men
Furlong, Monica. Puritan’s Progress, A Study of John Bunyan. Hodder and Stoughton.
13
who have been interested in him: she moves on to the use of his imagery by Charlotte Brontë
, Harriet Beecher Stowe
...
Friends, Associates
Fanny Fern
While FF
was a well-known writer she did not participate widely in the literary world, perhaps because of the dislike of pretension that prompted her to eschew involvement in fashionable society as well as the...
Publishing
Fanny Fern
She had signed a contract with Mason Brothers
without being required to submit a prospectus, and on the promise that the books would be heavily promoted, an indicator of how popular Fanny Fern had become...
Education
Fanny Fern
As a child FF
attended several schools, while her resistance to the piety and obedience expected of young ladies
Walker, Nancy A. Fanny Fern. Twayne.
7
apparently caused her father some concern. In the final years of her formal education she...
Education
Margiad Evans
An important book in Peggy's early childhood was Tom Kitten by Beatrix Potter
. The delicate little home pictures of that delicious masterpiece spoke to her as potential artist.
Evans, Margiad. A Ray of Darkness. Arthur Barker.
101
Later favourites included Harriet Beecher Stowe
Textual Features
George Eliot
In a letter to Harriet Beecher Stowe
in October 1876, soon after the appearance of Daniel Deronda, GE
writes bitterly of English insularity and casual anti-Semitism. Can anything be more disgusting than to hear...
Publishing
George Eliot
The first number of the Westminster Review to appear under her anonymous (and unpaid) editorship was that of January 1852, which was also the first under John Chapman
's ownership. One of her own contributions...
Education
Ketaki Kushari Dyson
As a child in a middle-class Bengali family, KKD
was exposed from an early age to several languages, particularly Bengali, English, Sanskrit, German, and French. She learned English at home from her mother
, who...
Intertextuality and Influence
Catherine Crowe
CC
's humanitarian interests (probably influenced by George Combe
) led to her publish The Juvenile Uncle Tom's Cabin, an abridged version for young readers of Harriet Beecher Stowe
's famous work.
Kunitz, Stanley J., editor. British Authors of the Nineteenth Century. H. W. Wilson Company.
Shattock, Joanne. The Oxford Guide to British Women Writers. Oxford University Press.
Friends, Associates
Camilla Crosland
CC
's friends and acquaintances were varying and numerous. In her youth the radical politician John Cartwright
was a neighbour. Her literary work as an adult led to the formation of a number of lasting...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text
Camilla Crosland
Since she was well-connected in London literary circles, she was able to include in her memoir recollections of time spent working with the annuals and of literary figures such as Grace Aguilar
, Lady Blessington
Reception
Dinah Mulock Craik
John Halifax was in such demand that DMC
's publishers, Hurst and Blackett
, went through four sets of plates by 1858, and many other publishers put out editions on both sides of the Atlantic...
Textual Production
Eliza Cook
EC
composed several poems in response to Harriet Beecher Stowe
's Uncle Tom's Cabin, 1852: Eva's Farewell, Poor Uncle Tom, The Mother's Leap, and Little Topsy's Song. The last was...
Friends, Associates
Frances Power Cobbe
During her 1860 sojourn in Italy she declined an invitation to meet George Eliot
because the latter was living with a married man. Her friendship with distinguished scientist Mary Somerville
blossomed during this trip, and...
Intertextuality and Influence
Frances Power Cobbe
FPC
's piece makes much use of the pithy formulations and piercing wit that characterize her best prose. It conceives of writing as a powerful form of social intervention: books like Mrs. Stowe
's [...