Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, first Baron Lytton
-
Standard Name: Lytton, Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton,,, first Baron
Birth Name: Edward George Earle Bulwer
Self-constructed Name: Edward George Earle Bulwer-Lytton
Titled: Edward George Earle Bulwer-Lytton, first Baron Lytton
Edward George Bulwer-Lytton
, who began his prolific career as Edward Bulwer, wrote many kinds of novels—from the silver-fork genre (whose name derived from a derisive reference to Bulwer himself as a silver fork polisher
Mitchell, Sally, editor. Victorian Britain: An Encyclopedia. Garland Press.
103
in Fraser's Magazine ) and domestic fiction to crime or Newgate
novels (the forerunner of sensation fiction), science fiction, and occult stories. He also wrote three plays, several books of poetry, and an Arthurian epic, as well as editing The New Monthly Magazine from 1831 to 1833.
Mitchell, Sally, editor. Victorian Britain: An Encyclopedia. Garland Press.
This book began a friendship between FMP
and Edward Bulwer Lytton
, who asked for an introduction because he so much admired her style.
Harris, Mary J. Y. Memoirs of Frances Mary Peard. W. H. Smith.
52
Literary responses
Ouida
The Athenæum criticized the novel for its monotonous misery and suggested that the author should have left religious speculation alone instead of using the novel to insist that Christianity as a Religion of Love is...
Literary responses
Margaret Oliphant
MO
's The Secret Chamber, which first appeared in Blackwood's in December 1876 and was reprinted in Tales from Blackwood (1778-80 series), was called by the Athenæum perhaps the most striking ghost story since...
Friends, Associates
Caroline Norton
Before her marriage CN
had formed a friendship with the Irish poet Tom Moore
, once a crony of her famous grandfather; this friendship endured into her middle age. It was also as Richard Brinsley...
Textual Features
Anne Mozley
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...
Dedications
Marion Moss
In collaboration with her sister Celia
, MM
published by subscription The Romance of Jewish History, a three-volume set of short stories and novellas, dedicated to Edward Bulwer (later Bulwer Lytton)
.
Zatlin, Linda Gertner. The Nineteenth-Century Anglo-Jewish Novel. Twayne.
30
Galchinsky, Michael. The Origin of the Modern Jewish Woman Writer. Wayne State University Press.
108
The Athenaeum Index of Reviews and Reviewers: 1830-1870. http://replay.web.archive.org/20070714065452/http://www.soi.city.ac.uk/~asp/v2/home.html.
687 (26 December 1840): 1024
Publishing
Marion Moss
The sisters had access to some distinguished subscribers. They included not only Bulwer Lytton
(despite his conversionist characterisation of Jewish women in Leila)
Galchinsky, Michael. The Origin of the Modern Jewish Woman Writer. Wayne State University Press.
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...
Intertextuality and Influence
Mary Russell Mitford
Macready
praised the play, but then undermined the value of his own praise, calling it a wonderful tragedy—an extraordinary tragedy for a woman to have written.
Pigrome, Stella. “Mary Russell Mitford”. The Charles Lamb Bulletin, Vol.
66
, Charles Lamb Society, pp. 53-62.
57
Its popularity in London was such as to...
Literary responses
Mary Russell Mitford
Charles the First was received well by the Athenæum, which indicated that the performance provided genuine satisfaction to a very attentive audience and gratification in its most agreeable shape to the gifted lady,
Athenæum. J. Lection.
349 (1834): 508
Occupation
Jean Middlemass
JM
never acted in a theatre, though she recited at the Royal Pavilion, to a full audience at the Dome, and at many private parties. The parts she played included: Esther in Thomas William Robertson
Friends, Associates
Harriet Martineau
HM
's social circle vastly expanded at this time until she knew virtually all the prominent people, particularly the political men, of her day. As she recorded in her Autobiography, however, she refused to...
Friends, Associates
Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington
From 1832, when she began writing and editing in earnest, she entertained such figures as Benjamin Robert Haydon
, Isaac D'Israeli
, Edward Bulwer-Lytton
, and Byron's former mistress the Countess Guiccioli
(who visited England...
Wealth and Poverty
Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington
In her first book she had described attendance at this kind of auction as a fashionable amusement. The sale, which took place after she had fled the country, realised only £12,000.
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder.
Edward Bulwer-Lytton
paid seven...
Reception
Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington
This book sparked both sensation and controversy. It was the starting point for Blessington's friendships with Isaac D'Israeli
and Edward Bulwer-Lytton
.
Feldman, Paula R., editor. British Women Poets of the Romantic Era. John Hopkins University Press.
149
Some critics were sceptical as to whether her friendship with Byron had...
