During this time, her participation in Oxford intellectual circles brought her into close contact with prominent thinkers of her day, including Benjamin Jowett
, Master of Balliol.
Ward, Mary Augusta. A Writer’s Recollections. Harper and Brothers.
MAW
planned her next novel as a much weightier study of the intellectual impact of historical thought on conventional faith; it was deeply influenced by the intellectual milieu of Oxford and the histories of her...
Literary responses
Mary Augusta Ward
MAW
's friend Benjamin Jowett
praised David Grieve as the best novel since George Eliot
.Walter Pater
also approved, but critics were not enthusiastic.
Colby, Vineta. The Singular Anomaly: Women Novelists of the Nineteenth Century. New York University Press.
150
Sales were good, but there were some hostile reviews...
