Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Anna Maria Porter
-
Standard Name: Porter, Anna Maria
Birth Name: Anna Maria Porter
Pseudonym: A. P—r
Though she also wrote poetry and other genres, AMP
's name rests on her almost thirty historical romances (totalling 54 volumes). Many had US editions and French translations. She tends to focus on male rather than female relationships. Her settings range across European history and geography; she is interested in independence struggles, and supports an idealised version of rational, constitutional, British middle-class polity against tyranny on the one hand and barbarianism on the other. Her plots emphasize sentiment and morality and (like Sophia Lee
's The Recess) make national events a backdrop to private crises and intrigues. Though her earlier work was regularly judged inferior to that of her sister Jane
, she became very successful.
A list of about 210 subscribers is given in the volume. They included Hannah More
and Jane
and Anna Maria Porter
. A sixth edition appeared in 1847.
Loeber, Rolf, and Magda Loeber. A Guide to Irish Fiction 1650-1900. Four Courts.
180
Garside, Peter et al., editors. The English Novel 1770-1829. Oxford University Press.
2: 660
The full title is...
Performance of text
Jane Porter
JP
's tragedy Switzerland (which has been sometimes wrongly attributed to her sister Anna Maria
), was performed at Drury Lane
, only to be summarily withdrawn after its single, disastrous performance.
Archival evidence is...
Literary responses
Jane Porter
The notice in the Critical Review began by using this novel as a peg for a defence of good novels in general, especially, apparently, those dealing with national histories. The existence of many incompetent novelists...
Literary responses
Jane Porter
JP
was, with her sister
, one of those praised by John O'Keeffe
in his poem Female Authors, Being an Answer to a Lady, who asserted, that by transmigration the soul of Shakespeare
lived in...
Literary responses
Fanny Holcroft
The Critical gave this novel a detailed notice starting from the proposition that FH
had not had critical justice because of unfair comparisons with her eminent father. It praised the contrast in personality between the...
MLCC
mentions her warm friendships with leading officers of the Royal Navy
, whom she knew through her husband's position. A number of writers too, including Mariana Starke
, became her personal friends.
Crawford, Elizabeth. “Posts tagged Mariana Starke”. Woman and her Sphere.
2 November 2012
Friends, Associates
Selina Davenport
Her tempestuous but close friendship with Jane
and Anna Maria Porter
began by the mid 1790s.
Looser, Devoney. Email to Isobel Grundy about Selina Davenport.
Her marriage caused a hiatus in this friendship, but it later resumed, and in any case with Jane it...
Friends, Associates
Mary Robinson
After MR
became known as the prince's mistress, the double standard in public morality made it virtually impossible for respectable women to treat her as a friend. Her admiration for Sarah Siddons
was not reciprocated...
Friends, Associates
Elizabeth Isabella Spence
EIS
says that her early friendship with Jane
and Anna Maria Porter
was inherited, developing from the friendship between their parents,
Spence, Elizabeth Isabella. Letters from the North Highlands, During the Summer 1816. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown.
325-6
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
under Anna Maria Porter
which had been formed, no doubt, in Durham. In...
Friends, Associates
Mary Lamb
One of those prepared to welcome her was Elizabeth Benger
, who invited the brother and sister to tea, and was keen to get them back again to meet Jane
and Anna Maria Porter
...
HL
, like her sister, was personally friendly with many other writers of her day: Jane
and Anna Maria Porter
, Ann Radcliffe
(even though the latter probably did not, as often reported, attend the...
Friends, Associates
Sophia Lee
Their school, together with their literary careers, brought SL
and her sisters a wide circle of friends and contacts, including Jane
and Anna Maria Porter
. The novelist Elizabeth Sophia Tomlins describes Sophia as surrounded...
Friends, Associates
Elizabeth Ogilvy Benger
Having already praised many contemporary women writers in print, EOB
was now able to meet them. The move to London was accomplished principally through the zealous friendship of Miss Sarah Wesley
, who had already...