William Makepeace Thackeray

Two things about this novel gave offence initially and had a long-term effect on its reputation: its treating the nasty topic of deformity, and its involving the hero emotionally with three women (his mother as...

Harriet Martineau was amazed when AM first read her one of these tales, The Admiral's Daughter, and felt that their hostess later that evening (Sarah Wedgwood ) must have been almost equally amazed...

At a very early age Emma Martin could recite See'st thou my home is where yon woods are waving by Felicia Hemans . After leaving school she continued to study music with Dr Zacariah or Zechariah Buck

Stoney's first wife had died in early 1775, after alleged beatings and starvation, leaving him everything she owned (like her successor's, it was colliery money). The wedding between Stoney and the Countess of...

Stoney (henceforward Bowes) was described by a close friend as considering all females as natural game. He set out from the wedding onwards to assert his power: among other things he refused to let...

In the summer of 1852 Elizabeth and Alice Thompson (later AM ) began their education under their father's instruction. Recording her daughters' lessons, Christiana Thompson writes, Dear little angels do their writing . ....

MRM 's letters regularly indulge in analysis of books. She comments on works by both men and women, in English and French, and her opinions shift a good deal with age. She reacted with horror...

LMM attended a one-room schoolhouse across the road from her grandparents' farmhouse, completing her time there in 1892. The following year, she went to the Prince of Wales College in Charlottetown for teacher training. Her...

SM was influenced by spiritualism, though she was often unsure whether to be amazed or amused. For news of the movement, she and her husband read the Tribune and the Albion from New York. John Moodie

Responses to More's tracts, as to most of her work, reflected their deliberately controversial project. She was widely praised for them among her own class. Someone said she let the poor know that the rich...

The review of Adam Bede is indeed most perceptive as well as detailed. AM begins by noticing how novels have been expanding their empire: how many have been added to their readership by the newer...

But her reputation was such that even friendships were minefields: a friendly relationship with Thackeray exposed her firstly to a direct snub from his friend, or lover, Jane Brookfield (who refused to meet the notorious...

H. F. Chorley , reviewing for the Athenæum, considered this the most melancholy tale he could recall, and argued that it was not wholesome or an accurate depiction of nature to argue via fiction...

COCE headed her book with two lines from Thomas Campion : Alas, poor book . . . go spread thy papery wings. / Thy lightness cannot help or hurt my fame. She walks a...

The success of AO 's first novel introduced her to England's literary circles. She knew the BrowningRobert Browning s, the CarlyleThomas Carlyle s, the ThackerayWilliam Makepeace Thackeray s, Tennyson , and Swinburne . She also kept company with Mary Louisa Molesworth .