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 Mary Ann Browne
Mary Russell Mitford wrote that of all poetesses, MAB had touched with the sweetest, the firmest, the most delicate hand, the difficult chords of female passion.
Feldman, Paula R., editor. British Women Poets of the Romantic Era. John Hopkins University Press.
155
Friends, Associates Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Elizabeth Barrett was introduced to Mary Russell Mitford , who became a lifelong friend, by her cousin John Kenyon ; she met Wordsworth the following day.
Forster, Margaret. Elizabeth Barrett Browning: A Biography. Grafton.
80-2
Browning, Robert, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. The Brownings’ Correspondence. Editors Kelley, Philip et al., Wedgestone Press.
3: 320
Leisure and Society Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Elizabeth Barrett received her beloved cocker spaniel, Flush, as a gift from Mary Russell Mitford .
Forster, Margaret. Elizabeth Barrett Browning: A Biography. Grafton.
101
Browning, Robert, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. The Brownings’ Correspondence. Editors Kelley, Philip et al., Wedgestone Press.
5: xii
Other Life Event Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Elizabeth Barrett 's dog Flush, a highly-valued companion given her by Mary Russell Mitford , was stolen and held for two days before being returned for a ransom of five guineas.
Forster, Margaret. Elizabeth Barrett Browning: A Biography. Grafton.
100, 117-18
Browning, Robert, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. The Brownings’ Correspondence. Editors Kelley, Philip et al., Wedgestone Press.
7: xii
Health Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Her strength and spirit were further weakened by her grief over the death of her longtime though lately somewhat estranged friend, Mary Russell Mitford .
Literary responses Elizabeth Barrett Browning
In probably 1836, Mary Russell Mitford signalled her friendship for Lady Dacre by sendng her Barrett's Prometheus Bound and An Essay on Mind, with praise for her power of writing, the force, the fire...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Elizabeth Barrett Browning
The title piece is a lyrical drama depicting, largely in the form of a conversation between two angels, the crucifixion of Christ. Among the accompanying pieces were several on literary personages or topics: To Mary Russell Mitford
Literary responses Elizabeth Barrett Browning
EBB 's ballads have proved of particular interest to feminist critics. Dorothy Mermin argues that in this apparently most innocent, retrogressive, and sentimental of female genres, she was exploring what was to become her central...
Textual Features Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Her response to him made it clear that she wanted a literary friendship and exchange. He resisted her attempts to cast him as her tutor—as well he might, being younger and the less established poet...
Publishing Elizabeth Barrett Browning
She did not show the poems to Browning until July of 1849; he persuaded her to include them in her next edition of Poems, saying I dared not reserve to myself, the finest sonnets...
Reception Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Mary Russell Mitford 's memoirs, published at the beginning of 1852, presented a sympathetic and admiring but (EBB felt) far too personal picture of her. Camilla Crosland wrote about her (as well as about...
Literary responses Mary Bryan
The novel's publication was listed in the Edinburgh Review 49 (1829): 529, together with Scott's Anne of Geierstein.
The Edinburgh Review. A. and C. Black.
49 (1829): 528-9
The Sun linked the setting not with Crabbe but with Mary Russell Mitford
Literary responses Sarah Harriet Burney
The Critical review began predictably: The very name of Burney is sufficient to excite the most agreeable sensations in all the lovers of novel reading;
Critical Review. W. Simpkin and R. Marshall.
4th ser. 2 (1812) : 519
but it cited...
Friends, Associates Caroline Clive
CC remained a close friend of her early passion Catherine Gore .
Blain, Virginia et al., editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford.
She was also acquainted with Mary Russell Mitford , whom she described as priggy,
Clive, Caroline. Caroline Clive. Editor Clive, Mary, Bodley Head.
266
Elizabeth Barrett Browning ,
Blain, Virginia et al., editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford.
and Harriet Martineau
Reception Caroline Clive
This poem was considered one of CC 's best works. It was praised by Mary Russell Mitford , and George Saintsbury noted its originality
Partridge, Eric Honeywood. “Mrs. Archer Clive”. Literary Sessions, Scholartis Press.
123
(though the passage on the dead wit and writer searching...

Timeline

No timeline events available.

Texts

Mitford, Mary Russell. The Works of Mary Russell Mitford, Prose and Verse. James Crissy, 1841.
Mitford, Mary Russell. Watlington Hill. A. J. Valpy, 1812.