Barbara Hofland

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Standard Name: Hofland, Barbara
Birth Name: Barbara Wreaks
Married Name: Barbara Hoole
Married Name: Barbara Hofland
Pseudonym: An Old-Fashioned Englishman
Pseudonym: Benjamin Blunderhead, Esq.
Pseudonym: The Author of an Officer's Widow and her Young Family
Pseudonym: The Author of Says She to Her Neighbour, What?
In forty years of writing BH produced nearly seventy titles, not all discussed here (besides doubtful attributions). They include books for children or young adults and adult novels, with some poems, plays, guidebooks, and handbooks on artistic topics. More than 300,000 copies were sold in Britain and as many, proportionately to population, in the USA. Many were translated, covering most European languages.
Ramsay, Thomas. The Life and Literary Remains of Barbara Hofland. W. J. Cleaver.
viii
Though her titles fall naturally into groups, named (in later parlance branded) from family relationships (notably widows as struggling, successful single mothers), or virtues, or boys' careers in the expanding British empire, BH always varies her formulas. Her novels for the adult market are independent in their attitudes, expressing an original and thinking mind.
Black and white photograph of a stipple engraving, published 1823 (National Portrait Gallery), of a painting of Barbara Hofland, shown from the waist up, wearing a simple dark dress with a light lace-trimmed shawl around her shoulders. Her dark curly hair is covered with a turban-style bonnet. Underneath in italic script is written "Mrs. Hofland / Author of The Son of a Genius - Integrity, a tale, &c, &c."

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Textual Production Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington
This work involved her in finding—and engaging in voluminous correspondence with—contributors (who often were or became her personal friends), such as Anna Maria Hall , Felicia Hemans , Amelia Opie , Mary Russell Mitford ,...
Textual Production Jane Marcet
An anonymous Conversations on the Evidences of Christianity, published in one volume by Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green , is usually ascribed to JM , but also to Barbara Hofland 's son Frederick Parkin Hoole
Friends, Associates Mary Ann Kelty
Little is known of any literary contacts of MAK . She met and became a friend of Barbara Hofland , and in the early 1830s she sought [the] acquaintance by letter of Harriet Martineau ...
Textual Production Felicia Hemans
These were collected in her next volume, Translations. Hemans joined a number of other women who had lamented the death of the princess in childbirth on 6 November 1817: Margaret Croker , Susanna Watts
Textual Production Elizabeth Ham
EH anonymously contributed Mabel (a ghost story about a deaf girl) to an anthology, The Remembrance, edited by Thomas Roscoe and dedicated to Queen Adelaide .
This volume also contained work by Felicia Hemans
Textual Production Catherine Gore
The title of CG 's anonymous novel Women as They Are; or, The Manners of the Day, linked it to a reformist tradition running from Robert Bage in 1792, through Barbara Hofland in 1815...
Literary responses Eliza Fay
The Calcutta Gazette gave EF a warm review.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Barbara Hofland admired her letters for the moral qualities (the female fortitude) they displayed.
Hofland, Barbara. The Captives in India. R. Bentley.
1: prelims
She gave some real incidents and situations from Fay's experience...
Friends, Associates Eliza Fay
At some unknown date EF met the novelist Barbara Hofland , to whom she related the incident about the alleged buying of the slave.
Hofland, Barbara. The Captives in India. R. Bentley.
1: 193ff
Family and Intimate relationships Maria Edgeworth
Maria mourned so intensely that she fell ill. She was pleased by a letter from Barbara Hofland recognising the very special nature of her loss; on the other hand she was offended at Elizabeth Inchbald
Textual Production Frances Hodgson Burnett
FHB wrote The Two Little Pilgrims' Progress (whose title invokes Bunyan and perhaps adapters of Bunyan like Mary Martha Sherwood , Barbara Hofland , and Charlotte Maria Tucker ), about the visit of orphan twins...

Timeline

No timeline events available.

Texts

Hofland, Barbara. Patience and Perseverance; or, The Modern Griselda. Minerva, 1813.
Hofland, Barbara. Poems. Printed by J. Montgomery, and sold by Vernor and Hood, 1805.
Hofland, Barbara. Reflection. Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green, 1826.
Hofland, Barbara. Rich Boys and Poor Boys. A. K. Newman, 1833.
Hofland, Barbara, and William Bernard Cooke. Richmond, and its Surrounding Scenery. W. B. Cooke, 1832.
Hofland, Barbara. Says She to her Neighbour, What?. Minerva, 1812.
Hofland, Barbara. Self-Denial. A Tale. Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green, 1827.
Hofland, Barbara. Tales of the Manor. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown, 1822.
Hofland, Barbara. Tales of the Priory. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown, 1820.
Hofland, Barbara. Tales, in Verse. Longman, Hurst, Rees and Orme, 1810.
Hofland, Barbara. The Captives in India. R. Bentley, 1834.
Hofland, Barbara. The Czarina. H. Colburn, 1842.
Hofland, Barbara. The Daughter of a Genius. J. Harris, 1823.
Hofland, Barbara. The Daughter-in-Law, her Father, and Family. A. K. Newman, 1829.
Hofland, Barbara. The Funeral. A Monody to the Memory of Princess Charlotte. Bentham and Ray, 1817.
Hofland, Barbara. The Godmother’s Tales. A. K. Newman, 1842.
Hofland, Barbara. The Good Grandmother and her Offspring. R. Hunter, 1817.
Hofland, Barbara. The History of an Officer’s Widow and her Young Family. J. Harris, 1809.
Hofland, Barbara. The King’s Son: A Romance of English History. H. Colburn, 1843.
Hofland, Barbara. The Merchant’s Widow and her Family. Minerva, 1814.
Hofland, Barbara. The Merchant’s Widow and Her Family. A. K. Newman, 1823.
Hofland, Barbara. The Panorama of Europe; or, A New Game of Geography. Minerva, 1813.
Hofland, Barbara. The Sisters. Minerva, 1813.
Hofland, Barbara. The Son of a Genius. J. Harris, 1812.
Hofland, Barbara. The Son of a Genius. J. Harris, 1836.