Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Maria Grey
-
Standard Name: Grey, Maria
Birth Name: Maria Georgina Shirreff
Married Name: Maria Georgina Grey
MG
wrote during the second half of the nineteenth century. Her early productions were literary: she collaborated with her sister
on a narrative and a novel, and then produced a second novel independently. Her later writings were political, arguing the need for improvements to women's education, as well as addressing issues relating to the suffrage movement. Through her writings and through direct action, MG
worked to ensure an improvement in opportunities for women's education.
Since, however, writing seemed unlikely to yield her a livelihood, she went immediately to work as assistant secretary for the Charity Organization Society
, Chelsea branch. This paid her twenty-three shillings a week, with hours...
The Athenæum regarded FPC
's book as a serious contribution to theological debate, though it considered the first essay the weakest. Her rejection of the thinking that fed into social Darwinism—she noted that Darwin had...
Intertextuality and Influence
Frances Power Cobbe
Among the personal duties that the book identifies, is that of maintaining your own lawful freedom
Cobbe, Frances Power. The Duties of Women. G. H. Ellis.
83
as the indispensable condition of the whole moral life.
Cobbe, Frances Power. The Duties of Women. G. H. Ellis.
84
But freedom must be exercised properly, and Cobbe...
Author summary
Catherine Maria Grey
CMG
was a popular silver-fork novelist, most commonly known as Mrs. Grey to her readers. Her works are often misattributed to her daughter Anna Maria Grey
, or to the unrelated Maria Georgina Grey
(1816-1906)...
Author summary
James Malcolm Rymer
James Malcolm Rymer
was a prolific penny dreadfulist, novelist, and journal editor. Although he rarely published under his own name but instead employed a large number of pseudonyms, his works of fiction (which may have...
Textual Production
Emily Shirreff
Further to her work as honorary secretary of the organization which she and her sister
had founded, ES
co-edited the Journal of the Women's Education Union.
British Library Catalogue. http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?dscnt=0&tab=local_tab&dstmp=1489778087340&vid=BLVU1&mode=Basic&fromLo.
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder.
Author summary
Emily Shirreff
ES
lived and wrote during the mid-nineteenth century. She was a keen educationalist, and many of her writings were essays, tracts, and pamphlets in which she argued the need for an improved education system. These...
Family and Intimate relationships
Emily Shirreff
ES
had an elder sister, Caroline
, and two younger sisters, Maria
and Katherine
. Maria and Emily remained close all their lives, and published several collaborative works.
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.
Ellsworth, Edward W. Liberators of the Female Mind: The Shirreff Sisters, Educational Reform, and the Women’s Movement. Greenwood.
9, 19-20
Education
Emily Shirreff
ES
' early education was primarily domestic. Her father employed Adele Piquet
, a French-Swiss governess who spoke no English, to educate Emily and Maria
. The girls' mother
also read to them and taught them needlepoint.
Ellsworth, Edward W. Liberators of the Female Mind: The Shirreff Sisters, Educational Reform, and the Women’s Movement. Greenwood.
8, 10
Family and Intimate relationships
Emily Shirreff
In 1841 ES
's sister Maria
married William Grey
. Given the sisters' close relationship, the marriage was difficult for Emily, and her health even deteriorated somewhat immediately following it. After a brief period, however...
Travel
Emily Shirreff
By 1847, ES
was living in her mother
's home in Lowndes Square in London with her sister
and brother-in-law
.
Ellsworth, Edward W. Liberators of the Female Mind: The Shirreff Sisters, Educational Reform, and the Women’s Movement. Greenwood.
15
Friends, Associates
Emily Shirreff
The pair frequently helped each other in their writing: Buckle was already working on his History of Civilisation in England. Maria Grey
said that his influence on ES
was that of a strong and...
Her sister
identified the reason that she left this position: she was confronted with a persistent opposition to her influence and views concerning governance of the institution.
Ellsworth, Edward W. Liberators of the Female Mind: The Shirreff Sisters, Educational Reform, and the Women’s Movement. Greenwood.
