Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Jane Porter
-
Standard Name: Porter, Jane
Birth Name: Jane Porter
JP
was largely an early nineteenth-century author: though she reached print before the end of the previous century, she let her younger and more prolific sister get the start of her in publishing. She wrote plays, poems, and diaries, and edited Sir Philip Sidney
, but she began with and is best known for her pioneering of the historical novel.
In her memoirs LA
claims to have been acquainted with all the notable literary women of her time. She was a close friend of Joanna Baillie
and Elizabeth Ogilvy Benger
. Another important friend and...
Friends, Associates
Joanna Baillie
On 11 May 1812 Henry Crabb Robinson
recorded in his diary meeting JB
and other women writers on a visit to Miss Benjers (Elizabeth Ogilvy Benger
). In his account of this pleasant evening...
Textual Features
Joanna Baillie
JB
said she admired her heroine Lady Grisell
(whose story she wrote in a few weeks during the winter of 1816-17) beyond any Female Character I ever knew or read of.
Baillie, Joanna. The Collected Letters of Joanna Baillie. Editor Slagle, Judith Bailey, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.
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...
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...
Intertextuality and Influence
Mary Brunton
MB
's first heroine, Laura Montreville, daughter of a Scottish officer, covets Christian martyrdom as a child, in rather the same spirit as George Eliot
's Dorothea Brooke and other idealistic, immature heroines. As a...
Leisure and Society
Maria Susanna Cooper
MSC
kept up with contemporary publications. She asked her son Astley to send her from London the latest volume of Johnson
's edition of Shakespeare
Cooper, Bransby Blake. The Life of Sir Astley Cooper, Bart. John W. Parker.
Maurice grows up and grows handsome. On later visits he performs a dangerous and heroic rescue of a local girl from the path of a train, and takes Nora out hunting: a more adult mode...
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...
Family and Intimate relationships
Selina Davenport
The marriage ended around 1810 in an acrimonious separation. SD
left her husband, for what her supporters later said were sufficient reasons.
Archives of the Royal Literary Fund, 1790-1918.
Years later Jane Porter
wrote that SDis known by the name...
Occupation
Selina Davenport
During her marriage SD
worked at running a school, which, however, was far from profitable. She also supported her daughters through her writing, and opened another unsuccessful school at Greenwich after she left her husband....
Timeline
23-24 June 1314: The English attempt to conquer Scotland was...
National or international item
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.
By April 1818: John Keats published Endymion: A Poetic ...
29 November 1830 - May 1831: Uprisings in Poland were suppressed by Russia...
National or international item
29 November 1830 - May 1831
Uprisings in Poland were suppressed by Russia after considerable military operations.
9 August 1838: The Hampstead circulating library, intended...
Writing climate item
9 August 1838
The Hampstead circulating library, intended for the middling and lower ranks, which had stocked no novels on principle except those of Scott
and Edgeworth
, found these were borrowed so much more often than...
Texts
Porter, Jane. A Sketch of the Campaigns of Count Alexander Suwarrow Rymnikski. Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, 1804.
Sidney, Sir Philip. Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney. Editor Porter, Jane, Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, 1807.
Porter, Anna Maria, and Jane Porter. Coming Out; and, The Field of the Forty Footsteps. Longman, 1828.
Porter, Jane. Duke Christian of Luneburg. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, 1824, http://U of A, Special Collections.
Porter, William Ogilvie. Sir Edward Seaward’s Narrative of his Shipwreck. Editor Porter, Jane, Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, 1831.
Porter, Jane, and Anna Maria Porter. Tales Round a Winter Hearth. Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, 1826.
Porter, Jane. Thaddeus of Warsaw. T. N. Longman and O. Rees, 1803.
Porter, Jane. Thaddeus of Warsaw. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1819.
Porter, Jane. The Pastor’s Fire-Side. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1817, http://U of A, Special Collections.
Porter, Jane. The Scottish Chiefs. Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, 1810.
Porter, Jane. The Scottish Chiefs. Derby and Jackson, 1856.
Porter, Jane. The Two Princes of Persia. Crosby and Letterman, 1801.
