Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Sir Walter Scott
-
Standard Name: Scott, Sir Walter
Birth Name: Walter Scott
Titled: Sir Walter Scott
Nickname: The Great Unknown
Used Form: author of Kenilworth
The remarkable career of Walter Scott
began with a period as a Romantic poet (the leading Romantic poet in terms of popularity) before he went on to achieve even greater popularity as a novelist, particularly for his historical fiction and Scottish national tales. His well-earned fame in both these genres of fiction has tended to create the impression that he originated them, whereas in fact women novelists had preceded him in each.
Lawrence, Rose. The Last Autumn at a Favorite Residence, with Other Poems. G. and J. Robinson, etc. and John Murray.
347
Hughes, Harriet Browne Owen, and Felicia Hemans. “Memoir of Mrs. Hemans”. The Works of Mrs. Hemans, W. Blackwood, pp. 1-315.
201
Reception
Felicia Hemans
The Domestic Affections was not reviewed, but FH
was slowly gaining recognition. In 1815 Walter Scott
published in the Edinburgh Annual Register a poem by her inspired by his
novel Waverley.
Hemans, Felicia. “Introduction and Editorial Materials”. Felicia Hemans: Selected Poems, Letters, Reception Materials, edited by Susan J. Wolfson, Princeton University Press, p. xiii - xxix; various pages.
xxii, xxxv
Literary responses
Felicia Hemans
Appreciation of FH
was slowly growing. Following on the positive responses from Scott
and Byron
, in October 1820John Taylor Coleridge
in the influential Quarterly Review (published by John Murray
, her own publisher)...
Literary responses
Felicia Hemans
The play's debut was disappointing. It closed after a single night, though it was remounted with greater success in Edinburgh the following April with Harriet Siddons
in a major role (having been recruited at Joanna Baillie
Publishing
Felicia Hemans
FH
's poems regularly appeared in periodicals, including The New Monthly Magazine from 1823. Publishing with Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine from 1827, she asked William Blackwood
to match her rate of more than a pound per...
Reception
Felicia Hemans
FH
's circulation in her lifetime rivalled that of her most prominent male contemporaries. With sales of about 18,000 volumes, she outsold Coleridge
and Wordsworth
, if not Scott
and Byron
. She proved, as...
Literary responses
Felicia Hemans
Wordsworth
in 1837 revised his existing Extempore Effusion upon the Death of James Hogg to include a stanza describing FH
as that holy Spirit / Sweet as the spring, as ocean deep.
Wordsworth, William. The Complete Poetical Works of Wordsworth. Editor George, Andrew J., Houghton Mifflin.
737
Although his...
Education
Emily Hickey
She demonstrated an early interest in reading. Scott
, Tennyson
, and Barrett Browning
numbered among her early favourites. Her father, however, did not allow her to read Shakespeare
, as he was repelled by...
Literary responses
Margaret Holford
Elizabeth Isabella Spence
praised this poem in print not long after its appearance (though she conceded that its view of Wallace was not so accurate as that of Jane Porter
's almost contemporaneous rendering in...
Literary responses
Margaret Holford
The reception of this second long poem was far less favourable than that of Wallace. The Monthly Review denied it literary merit while granting it some potential literary-historical interest. The poem was, wrote the...
Reception
Margaret Holford
It is clear from her correspondence with Joanna Baillie how much Margaret Holford the younger longed for success, and how much persistent energy she devoted to pursuing it. When in 1837-8 John Gibson Lockhart
published...
Intertextuality and Influence
Margaret Holford
Margaret Holford the younger
scored her greatest success with her anonymous: Wallace
, or, The Fight of Falkirk, a historical verse romance inspired by Walter Scott
's Marmion, 1808.
Holford seems to have cared about making influential friends, and succeeded in doing so although she lived in the provinces. She established a correspondence with Sir Walter Scott
, and although their relationship got off...
Publishing
Margaret Holford
Margaret Holford the younger
sent some Lines Occasioned by Reading the Poetical Works of Walter Scott to this admired figure some years before the appearance of her own Scott-influenced poem, Wallace.
Seward, Anna. Letters of Anna Seward. Editor Constable, Archibald, Vol.