Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Geraldine Jewsbury
-
Standard Name: Jewsbury, Geraldine
Birth Name: Geraldine Endsor Jewsbury
During her life, Geraldine Jewsbury
wrote six novels and two books for children. Widely published in Victorian periodicals, she was a respected reviewer, editor, and translator. Her periodical publications ranged from theatre reviews, short fiction, and children's literature to articles on social issues and religion. GJ
greatly influenced the Victorian publishing industry and public taste through her position as reviewer for the Athenæum and her role as reader for publishers Richard Bentley and Son
and Hurst and Blackett
.
The Athenæum's mixed review of the published novel is also attributed to Jewsbury
. It ostensibly applauds the book's readability and pluck while implicitly criticizing its implausibility. The characters, for example, are described as...
Textual Production
Adelaide Procter
Here AP
's wide literary connections paid off handsomely. Contributors to The Victoria Regia included some of the most prominent names in literature of the day, mingled with less prominent writers who were also feminists:...
Reception
Charlotte Riddell
The Athenæum review, by Geraldine Jewsbury
, saw CR
's release of her actual name as a major literary event. But she thought the novel itself not up to CR's best standard. She found in...
Reception
Charlotte Riddell
The Athenæum reviewer for this novel—again Geraldine Jewsbury
—thought that CR
was back on form in this better-structured, more clearly narrated novel. She admired the way that Heather's character is seen in action, and complained...
Literary responses
Charlotte Riddell
Geraldine Jewsbury
, reviewing The Moors and the Fens for the Athenæum in the year after publication, judged that although it had some interest, it had nothing of nature: The whole story resembles a child's...
Literary responses
Charlotte Riddell
Geraldine Jewsbury
reviewed this novel too for the Athenæum the year after publication, and she found it excellent . . . powerfully and carefully written, far superior to CR
's work heretofore.
Athenæum. J. Lection.
1947 (1865): 233
Literary responses
Anne Thackeray Ritchie
Geraldine Jewsbury
in the Athenæum saw considerable promise in the book, but blamed it for verging on a treatment of incest which ought to be . . . inadmissable for a novel.
Shankman, Lillian F., and Anne Thackeray Ritchie. “Biographical Commentary and Notes”. Anne Thackeray Ritchie: Journals and Letters, edited by Abigail Burnham Bloom et al., Ohio State University Press, p. various pages.
67
The Athenaeum Index of Reviews and Reviewers: 1830-1870. http://replay.web.archive.org/20070714065452/http://www.soi.city.ac.uk/~asp/v2/home.html.
Its fascination with poisoning, topical criminality, and female villainy within the domestic sphere places this story squarely in the midst of the sensation novel phenomenon. The Athenæum review (this time written by Geraldine Jewsbury
...
Literary responses
Emma Robinson
Geraldine Jewsbury
, again reviewing ER
for the Athenæum, this time made no reference of any kind to her gender.
Athenæum. J. Lection.
1947 (1865): 233
Jewsbury praised Dorothy Firebrace as a clever, vigorous, effective novel, rough...
Textual Features
Rosina Bulwer Lytton, Baroness Lytton
The story revolves around a villainous husband, Mr Ponsonby Ferrars, dubbed by reviewer Geraldine Jewsburya social ogre of the present day, with an unfortunate lawful wife whom he once married in a moment of...
Literary responses
Rosina Bulwer Lytton, Baroness Lytton
Jewsbury
gave Behind the Scenes an unfavourable review in the Athenæum for alleged dullness, malignity, and vulgarity.
Athenæum. J. Lection.
1381 (1854): 460
She claimed that its ingrained coarseness manifests itself from the beginning to the end
A brief notice in the Athenæum by Geraldine Jewsbury
was kinder: for those who like religious novels, [it] is one of the best of its class: for ourselves, we prefer it to any we have...
