Mary Russell Mitford

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Standard Name: Mitford, Mary Russell
Birth Name: Mary Russell Mitford
MRM , poet, playwright, editor, letter-writer, memoirist, and—in just one work—novelist, is best known for her sketches of rural life, especially those in the successive volumes of Our Village (whose first appeared in 1824). Her greatest success came when, under the pressure of her father's inexhaustible capacity for running up debt, she turned from the respected genres of poetry and plays to work at something more popular and remunerative.
Painting of Mary Russell Mitford by John Lucas, c. 1853, based on another by Benjamin Robert Haydon, 1824, which was disliked for its assertive look. Here an oval frame is painted in; Mitford wears a white ruffled cap around her face, a white collar pinned with a cameo, a grey gown and brown shawl.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Literary responses Charlotte O'Conor Eccles
Once again reviewers (as quoted at the back of The Matrimonial Lottery) were delighted with these [c]lever studies of Irish life and character. The Athenæum praised especially those stories which reflected first-hand knowledge (with...
Health Amelia Opie
Mary Russell Mitford thought AO much changed in April 1813: paler, thinner, and older looking.
Mitford, Mary Russell. The Life of Mary Russell Mitford: Told by Herself in Letters To Her Friends. Editor L’Estrange, Alfred Guy Kingham, Harper and Brothers.
1: 181
Family and Intimate relationships Amelia Opie
He was also lame. According to Mary Russell Mitfordall was arranged and the time fixed for the wedding. It went off on agreement, because each had enough to live on [poorly and singly]...
Cultural formation Amelia Opie
It may be significant that this was just two months before her father's death, though her friendship with the Gurney family was also important in her decision to convert. For more than a year she...
Literary responses Amelia Opie
Mary Russell Mitford , about to begin this book in its year of publication, summed AO up as clever and good-natured but predictable and not for the fastidious. She knew the recipe for Madeline...
Literary responses Amelia Opie
Opie's Tales of Real Life was praised by Mary Russell Mitford .
Mitford, Mary Russell. The Life of Mary Russell Mitford: Told by Herself in Letters To Her Friends. Editor L’Estrange, Alfred Guy Kingham, Harper and Brothers.
1: 188
Literary responses Amelia Opie
AO 's novels, which formed a comparatively minor part of her output, had an impact beyond the rest of her work. Literary historian Gary Kelly notes that when they were new they commanded among the...
Publishing Amelia Opie
AO was enlisted for a contribution to Finden's Tableaux by its editor, Mary Russell Mitford : she wrote for it The Novice: A True Story.
Opie, Amelia. “Introduction”. Adeline Mowbray, edited by Shelley King and John B. Pierce, Oxford University Press, p. i - xxix.
xxxix
Friends, Associates Amelia Opie
In 1813 she again met de Staël (who was visiting London) and introduced her to Elizabeth Inchbald . Others she met after her husband's death included Richard Brinsley Sheridan , Byron , and Sir Walter Scott
Wealth and Poverty Amelia Opie
In the early years of their marriage Amelia and John Opie were badly off, and John was cautious about money matters.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
under John Opie
It seems also that he had relations who were needy: after...
Textual Production Emma Parker
The title-page mentions three of her previous works and quotes Mary Russell Mitford on the topic of romantic Spain.
Friends, Associates Hester Lynch Piozzi
Mary Russell Mitford (who did not know HLP ) later praised her. HLP had met Mitford's teacher the future writer Frances Arabella Rowden , in Wales while Rowden struggled as a neglected, uncared for
Mitford, Mary Russell. The Life of Mary Russell Mitford: Told by Herself in Letters To Her Friends. Editor L’Estrange, Alfred Guy Kingham, Harper and Brothers.
2: 244
Friends, Associates Eleanor Anne Porden
EAP met Mary Russell Mitford in summer 1822 at the London house of Mrs Vardill: presumably the mother of the Romantic poet Anna Jane Vardill .
L’Estrange, Alfred Guy Kingham, editor. The Friendships of Mary Russell Mitford as Recorded in Letters from Her Literary Correspondents. Hurst and Blackett.
1: 121
Vardill was a friend and associate from...
Family and Intimate relationships Eleanor Anne Porden
Although EAP was not beautiful—indeed, Mary Russell Mitford (no beauty herself) remarked on her ugliness—
L’Estrange, Alfred Guy Kingham, editor. The Friendships of Mary Russell Mitford as Recorded in Letters from Her Literary Correspondents. Hurst and Blackett.
1: 121
she was courted by many men. She turned down all proposals of marriage on the grounds that she...
Reception Eleanor Anne Porden
Mary Russell Mitford was given this poem to review by Whittaker ; it was then that she met EAP .
L’Estrange, Alfred Guy Kingham, editor. The Friendships of Mary Russell Mitford as Recorded in Letters from Her Literary Correspondents. Hurst and Blackett.
1: 121
Alexander Dyce named Coeur de Lion as EAP 's best work. When she...

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