Grace Aguilar

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Standard Name: Aguilar, Grace
Birth Name: Grace Aguilar
GA , author of short stories, novels, and religious writings, was the only Anglo-Jewish woman in the nineteenth century to achieve considerable success as a writer. In addition to writing for gift-books and periodicals, in her lifetime she published a book of poetry, a single novel, a translation, a work on women's Biblical history, and two books of non-fiction on Jewish topics. As many additional volumes appeared posthumously.
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder, 1908.
Aguilar, Grace. Macintosh, the Highland Chief. G. Routledge, 1908.
Aguilar, Grace. Edmund, the Exiled Prince, and Wallace, the Dauntless Chief. G. Routledge, 1908.
Black and white engraved print of Grace Aguilar. She wears a dark coat with a buckle in the V of the collar with a necklace attached. She faces the viewer at an angle, with a small, closed smile.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Anthologization Marion Moss
With the encouragement of MP Sir George Staunton (to whom they dedicated the volume),
Galchinsky, Michael. The Origin of the Modern Jewish Woman Writer. Wayne State University Press, 1996.
108
“Jewish Encyclopedia”. JewishEncyclopedia.com.
but unbeknownst to their parents, the sisters published it to support the family after their father became ill and bedridden...
Anthologization Marion Moss
MM 's Lines Written on the Death of Grace Aguilar are reprinted in the Broadview Press edition of Aguilar's Selected Writings, 2003.
Education Kate Chopin
Following her father's death, her education was supplemented by her maternal great-grandmother Victoire Verdon Charleville , who placed a particular emphasis on French and music.The young Kate O'Flaherty was also a voracious reader, and enjoyed...
Education G. B. Stern
At first Gladys was taught at home by governesses: the stout, comical angel Fräulein Sanders,
Stern, G. B. Monogram. Chapman and Hall, 1936.
48
followed by several lunatics, one elderly nymphomaniac (unsuccessful) and a prostitute
Stern, G. B. Monogram. Chapman and Hall, 1936.
49
(that is, a governess who was dismissed...
Friends, Associates Felicia Hemans
FH 's literary correspondents and friends included Grace Aguilar , Joanna Baillie (whose Beacon she recalled reading when very young), and Mary Howitt .
Elwood, Anne Katharine. Memoirs of the Literary Ladies of England, from the Commencement of the Last Century. Henry Colburn, 1843.
238
Chorley, Henry Fothergill. Memorials of Mrs. Hemans. Saunders and Otley, 1836.
I: 145
She was acquainted with Maria Jane Jewsbury ...
Friends, Associates Charlotte Montefiore
CM moved in a considerably higher stratum of society than her contemporary Grace Aguilar . It is possible, however, that they corresponded during their collaboration for the Cheap Jewish Library. In a letter to...
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...
Intertextuality and Influence Stella Gibbons
The novel is richly intertextual. Jane Austen is a source of inspiration: Flora's sole occupational goal for the next thirty years is to collect material for a novel as good as Persuasion, but with...
Literary responses Charlotte Montefiore
In an article in the Jewish Chronicle two years afterCM died, Abraham Benisch wrote in praise of nineteenth-century Jewish women writers. He asserted that it is a remarkable phenomenon on the horizon of Anglo-Jewish...
Literary responses Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, first Baron Lytton
He praised Grace Aguilar 's Exposition of Zanoni, which he mentioned in the introduction to a new edition. He claimed that she and Harriet Martineau had provided the most valuable criticism of the work.
Drabble, Margaret, editor. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. Oxford University Press, 1985.
Crosland, Camilla. Landmarks of a Literary Life, 1820-1892. Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1893.
176
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, http://replay.web.archive.org/20070714065452/http://www.soi.city.ac.uk/~asp/v2/home.html.
Literary responses Marion Moss
An Athenæum review criticized the collection, claiming the sisters neglected the really romantic annals and legends of their nation and erroneously represented Jewish life: [T]hough the names and scenery are Jewish and Eastern, the manners...
Publishing Celia Moss
CM also published in periodicals. Her Neela, A Tale of the Jews in England appeared in 1842 in Friendship's Offering, and from there it was reprinted as a serial, beginning in January 1844, in...
Textual Features Amy Levy
She continued: The Jew, as we know him to-day, with his curious mingling of diametrically opposed qualities; his surprising virtues and no less surprising vices; leading his eager, intricate life; living, moving, and having his...
Textual Features Charlotte Montefiore
CM 's own stories include The Birthday and The Way to Get Rich. Her story The Diamond Isle, which was later translated into Dutch by Maria Hertzveld , may also have been written...
Textual Features Charlotte Montefiore
Here CM depicts noble and devout Jewish characters who refuse to sacrifice their religious heritage for monetary rewards. She occasionally describes Jewish religious ceremonies and formal rituals, but Linda Gertner Zatlin argues that her frequent...

Timeline

23-24 June 1314
The English attempt to conquer Scotland was fought off by Scottish forces under Robert Bruce at the Battle of Bannockburn near Stirling.
1 November 1755
A major earthquake at Lisbon in Portugal killed more than 10,000 people (estimates vary), provoking theological debate between Rousseau and Voltaire about the nature of evil.
1858
Jews in Britain first received full political rights.

Texts

Aguilar, Grace. An Archive of Her Letters.
Aguilar, Grace. Edmund, the Exiled Prince, and Wallace, the Dauntless Chief. G. Routledge, 1908.
Aguilar, Grace, and Sarah Aguilar. Essays and Miscellanies. A. Hart, 1853.
Aguilar, Grace. “History of the Jews in England”. Chambers’s Miscellany of Useful and Entertaining Tracts, Vol.
18
, No. 153, W. and R. Chambers.
Aguilar, Grace. Home Influence. R. Groombridge, 1847.
Aguilar, Grace. Home Influence. Hickling, Swan, and Brewer, 1857.
Aguilar, Grace. Home Scenes and Heart Studies. Editor Aguilar, Sarah, Groombridge and Sons, 1853.
Aguilar, Grace. Home Scenes and Heart Studies. D. Appleton and Company, 1890.
Orobio, B. de Castro. Israel Defended. Translator Aguilar, Grace, Privately printed by J. Wertheimer, 1838.
Aguilar, Grace. “Lady Gresham’s Fête”. Heath’s Book of Beauty.
Aguilar, Grace. Macintosh, the Highland Chief. G. Routledge, 1908.
Aguilar, Sarah, and Grace Aguilar. “Memoir of Grace Aguilar”. Home Influence, Hickling, Swan, and Brewer, 1857, p. ix - xvii.
Aguilar, Grace. Records of Israel. John Mortimer, 1844.
Aguilar, Grace, and Sarah Aguilar. Sabbath Thoughts and Sacred Communings. Groombridge, 1853.
Aguilar, Grace. The Days of Bruce. Editor Aguilar, Sarah, Groombridge and Sons, 1852.
Aguilar, Grace, and Henry Matthew Brock. The Days of Bruce. Seeley and Company, 1912.
Aguilar, Grace. The Jewish Faith. Groombridge, 1846.
Aguilar, Grace. The Magic Wreath. 1835.
Aguilar, Grace. The Mother’s Recompense. Editor Aguilar, Sarah, Groombridge, 1851.
Aguilar, Grace. The Spirit of Judaism. Editor Leeser, Isaac, Sherman, 1842.
Aguilar, Grace. The Vale of Cedars; or, The Martyr. Groombridge and Sons, 1850.
Aguilar, Grace. The Women of Israel. Groombridge, 1845.
Aguilar, Grace. The Women of Israel. D. Appleton and Company, 1880.
Aguilar, Grace. The Women of Israel. Cambridge University Press, 2010. http://www.cambridge.org/series/sSeries.asp?code=CLOR, http://www.cambridge.org/series/sSeries.asp?code=CLOR.
Aguilar, Grace. Woman’s Friendship. Groombridge and Sons, 1850.