Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Flora Annie Steel
-
Standard Name: Steel, Flora Annie
Birth Name: Flora Annie Webster
Married Name: Flora Annie Steel
Publishing from the 1880s through the first three decades of the twentieth century, FAS
produced some thirty books. Most of her novels describe contemporary Anglo-Indian life, though some are set in Britain (seldom in England) and five are historical novels about India (four of those being about the relatively distant time of the Mughal emperors, and one of them called by its author a biography). Of about eighty-five short stories collected in her successive volumes of short fiction, a number present, with imaginative sympathy, virtually every facet of Indian life,
Steel, Flora Annie. “Introduction”. The Best Short Stories of Flora Annie Steel, edited by Saros Cowasjee et al., Indus, p. i - xvi.
vii
often unmediated by any western presence. She also published history, a pamphlet on women's rights, and a vivid if impressionistic autobiography. FAS
's India is that of the British Raj, a place where sharply distinct cultures remain essentially unaffected by close contact, often erotic, between members of different races and religions. FAS has nothing but scorn for Anglos who cannot adapt to India, but also deep anxieties for Indians adapting to western ways.
During the First World War, when ES
had refused for years, on political grounds, to pay her taxes, when the amount owed had swelled with the cost of several summonses to fifty pounds, she was...
Textual Production
Beatrice Harraden
BH
is said to have devoted only an hour and a half each day to her writing, allowing it to encroach no further than this on her life.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Dell, Penelope. Nettie and Sissie. Hamish Hamilton.
21
politics
Maude Royden
MR
supported the Women's Tax Resistance League
, established in 1909, which organized suffragists who refused to pay taxes without representation. (Those who wrote later about being pursued for unpaid taxes included Flora Annie Steel
Boll, Theophilus E. M. Miss May Sinclair: Novelist: A Biographical and Critical Introduction. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.
96
politics
Stella Benson
After the First World War broke out in August 1914, SB
sided with Flora Annie Steel
in a Women Writers' Suffrage League
dispute over supporting the war. Benson and Steel believed in supporting the war...
politics
May Sinclair
Unlike many suffragists, MS
was a decided supporter of the war. With three other women (Jane Ellen Harrison
, Flora Annie Steel
, and Mary Augusta Ward
) she signed the Authors' Declaration to...
politics
Cicely Hamilton
Theatre manager Lena Ashwell
, actress Lillah McCarthy
, novelist Flora Annie Steel
, and journalist Evelyn Sharp
were among the many who withheld their taxes.
Whitelaw, Lis. The Life and Rebellious Times of Cicely Hamilton. Women’s Press.
104-5
politics
Beatrice Harraden
The Women's Tax Resistance League
had been founded on 22 October 1909. Flora Annie Steel
was another who had goods distrained at about this time, as Evelyn Sharp
had later. In an article in Votes...
politics
Henrietta Müller
Having become a householder (at 58 Cadogan Place in south-west London) for the first time the year before,
Pall Mall Gazette. J. K. Sharpe.
5932 (11 March 1884): 2
Müller refused to pay when she received her initial rates bill...
Occupation
Constance Smedley
Since the Langham Place Group
had provided a social space for women in 1860, several organizations had already challenged the flourishing institution of men's clubs. The Lyceum Club
came on the scene at a time...
Literary responses
B. M. Croker
The Times reviewer wrote that these stories were so good that BMC
could be bracketed with Flora Annie Steel
in comprehension of native Indian life and character.
“The Times Digital Archive 1785-2007”. Thompson Gale: The Times Digital Archive.
(20 April 1895): 8
Intertextuality and Influence
Mary Frances Billington
Chapters are provided on preliminaries, social preliminaries, the religious ceremony, the reception, the honeymoon, the return, and the first home (detailing the cost of servants' wages and some furnishings. Sex is not mentioned. The book...
Steel, Flora Annie. A Prince of Dreamers. Heinemann, 1908.
Steel, Flora Annie. A Sovereign Remedy. Heinemann, 1906.
Steel, Flora Annie. Dramatic History of India. K. and J. Cooper, 1917.
Steel, Flora Annie, and Arthur Rackham. English Fairy Tales. Macmillan, 1918.
Steel, Flora Annie et al. Folk Tales of the Punjab. Cosmo, 2001.
Steel, Flora Annie. From the Five Rivers. Heinemann, 1893.
Steel, Flora Annie. In the Guardianship of God. Heinemann, 1903.
Steel, Flora Annie. In the Permanent Way, and Other Stories. Heinemann, 1898.
Steel, Flora Annie. India Through the Ages. Routledge, 1908.
Steel, Flora Annie. “Introduction”. The Best Short Stories of Flora Annie Steel, edited by Saros Cowasjee et al., Indus, 1995, p. i - xvi.
Steel, Flora Annie. King-Errant. Heinemann, 1912.
Steel, Flora Annie. “Lâl”. Macmillan’s Magazine.
Steel, Flora Annie. Miss Stuart’s Legacy. Macmillan, 1893.
Steel, Flora Annie. Mistress of Men. Heinemann, 1917.
Steel, Flora Annie. On the Face of the Waters. T. Nelson, 1896.
Steel, Flora Annie. Red Rowans. Macmillan, 1895.
Steel, Flora Annie et al. Tales of the Punjab. Macmillan, 1894.
Steel, Flora Annie. The Best Short Stories of Flora Annie Steel. Editor Cowasjee, Saros, Indus, 1995.
Steel, Flora Annie, and Grace Gardiner. The Complete Indian Housekeeper and Cook. Frank Murray, 1890.
Steel, Flora Annie, and Grace Gardiner. The Complete Indian Housekeeper and Cook. Cambridge University Press, 2010, http://www.cambridge.org/series/sSeries.asp?code=CLOR.
Steel, Flora Annie. The Curse of Eve. John Lane, Bodley Head, 1929.
Steel, Flora Annie. The Flower of Forgiveness. Macmillan, 1894.
Steel, Flora Annie. The Garden of Fidelity. Macmillan, 1929.
Steel, Flora Annie. The Garden of Fidelity. Macmillan, 1930.
Steel, Flora Annie. The Gift of the Gods. Heinemann, 1911.