Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Sir Walter Scott
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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.
It was probably Mary A. Marzials
' anthology Gems of English Poetry which made poetry the only lesson the Knoxes disliked. Winifred felt that Hemans
's boy on the burning deck cut a poor figure...
Education
Maria Theresa Longworth
MTL
was educated in France at an Ursuline convent school.
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder.
She later undertook further study in Italy. She consequently became familiar with both French and Italian.
Rosenman, Ellen Bayuk. Unauthorized Pleasures. Cornell University Press.
137
Erickson, Arvel B., and John R. McCarthy. “The Yelverton Case: Civil Legislation and Marriage”. Victorian Studies, Vol.
14
, pp. 275-91.
275
From her writings it is clear...
Education
Mary Anne Schimmelpenninck
In the house of an aunt she was surprised to find novels (particularly those of Richardson
) a topic of conversation,
Schimmelpenninck, Mary Anne. Life of Mary Anne Schimmelpenninck. Editor Hankin, Christiana C., Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, and Roberts.
1: 118
and that (in her own judgement) Fielding
and Smollett
, and various...
Education
Pauline Johnson
PJ
was educated at home first by her mother
, who introduced her to the English Romantics. She was also taught by a governess in her early years. Chiefswood was full of books, and she...
Education
Beatrix Potter
Beatrix, educated at home and six years older than her brother, was a solitary child. She had few toys; but she became deeply interested in science, and was also, from an early age, devoted to...
Education
Mary Wesley
Mary acquired various country skills, like milking (by hand), butter-making, and of course riding.
Wesley, Mary, and Kim Sayer. Part of the Scenery. Bantam.
19, 20
She was not expected, however, to need to acquire skills that were marketable. Initially she was educated by about...
Education
Ella Baker
EB
was educated at home, chiefly by her sister Amy. At the age of thirteen, she recited Sir Walter Scott
's long romantic poem The Lady of the Lake from memory, on a challenge from...
Education
Marie Corelli
Looking back on her early education, MC
wrote I managed to develop into a curiously determined independent little personality, with ideas and opinions more suited to some clever young man. . . . I instinctively...
Education
Elma Napier
In spite of the fact that her family did not value literature as much as games, and that her mother had specific ideas about what girls should read, EN
devoured every book she could get...
Education
Catherine Carswell
In her unfinished autobiography, CC
remembers that while she grew up there were no novels in the house except Sir Walter Scott
's, and a small, fat, small-printed volume, bound in ornamental red and black...
Education
Emily Brontë
Thereafter, Patrick Brontë
educated his remaining children at home, using standard educational texts including Thomas Salmon
's A New Geographical and Historical Grammar, a condensed version of Oliver Goldsmith
's History of England,...
Education
George Eliot
Her devotion to John Bunyan
's Pilgrim's Progress remained unchanged during this period. She also read heavyweight works of theology, Hannah More
's letters, and a life of William Wilberforce
. By late 1838, however...
Education
Annie Tinsley
She was also taught, perhaps between schools, by her father. By the age of eleven she had devoured the poetry of the British Classics from Chaucer
to Beattie
,
Peet, Henry. Mrs. Charles Tinsley, Novelist and Poet. Butler and Tanner.
Fanny's reading here was important to her. She later regarded her close knowledge of the Bible as the greatest benefit I derived from my school training,
Since the cousin with whom she shared lessons was three years older, Ada Ellen read a good many books at that time which must have been far beyond . . . [her] powers. At twelve...
