Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Edith Somerville
-
Standard Name: Somerville, Edith
Birth Name: Edith Anne Œnone Somerville
Pseudonym: Geilles Herring
Pseudonym: Viva Graham
Pseudonym: E. Œ. Somerville
Pseudonym: Somerville and Ross
ES
, who published from 1885, is known from the Somerville and Ross partnership which produced at least one important novel and a collection of classic comic stories (set in the west of Ireland and centred on fox-hunting), as well as other endearing Irish sketches and travel writings. She continued to write in these genres, mostly story and memoir, after Ross's death (which she saw as interrupting but not ending their collaboration). The later works (the last appeared in 1949) are suffused with nostalgia, and very largely dominated by the need to make money, to keep going an estate which was no longer financially viable. The massive archive of ES
's diary and letters is still almost unexamined.
Violet belonged to the wealthy Anglo-Irish Protestant ascendancy.
Cronin, John. Somerville and Ross. Bucknell University Press.
15
Her family, of Norman origin, had been one of the largest landowners in the west of Ireland during the eighteenth century, and still held about six...
Textual Production
Martin Ross
Richard Bentley
commissioned MR
and Edith Somerville
for a three-volume novel, which becameThe Real Charlotte.
Cronin, John. Somerville and Ross. Bucknell University Press.
38
Intertextuality and Influence
Martin Ross
Before ever meeting her cousin Edith Somerville
, Violet Ross
had written articles (perhaps in emulation of her eldest brother
) and probably poetry, but none of this survives.
Collis, Maurice. Somerville and Ross: A Biography. Faber and Faber.
24
Textual Production
Martin Ross
Edith Somerville
and MR
finished writing their novel The Real Charlotte, which first brought them public success.
Collis, Maurice. Somerville and Ross: A Biography. Faber and Faber.
98
Textual Features
Martin Ross
MR
's letters were always remarkable for vividness, forcefulness, and breadth of emotional sympathy. She wrote particularly memorably to Edith Somerville
during the summer of 1888, from her childhood home in the west of Ireland...
Textual Production
Martin Ross
Edith Somerville
and MR
published, with Ward and Downey
, their most popular novel, The Real Charlotte.
Collis, Maurice. Somerville and Ross: A Biography. Faber and Faber.
98, 103
Publishing
Martin Ross
Edith Somerville
, rising ninety, received the news that Oxford University Press
was reprinting The Real Charlotte (by herself and MR
) in the World's Classics series.
Collis, Maurice. Somerville and Ross: A Biography. Faber and Faber.
275
Material Conditions of Writing
Martin Ross
MR
and Edith Somerville
, staying at Etaples in France, began work on the stories which became Some Experiences of an Irish R. M.
Collis, Maurice. Somerville and Ross: A Biography. Faber and Faber.
123
Textual Production
Martin Ross
Edith Somerville
and MR
published the book for which they were and are most famous: Some Experiences of an Irish R. M., illustrated by Somerville herself.
Cummins, Geraldine. Dr. E. Œ. Somerville: A Biography. Andrew Dakers.
253-4
Collis, Maurice. Somerville and Ross: A Biography. Faber and Faber.
126
Family and Intimate relationships
Martin Ross
Violet Martin (later MR
) met her second cousin Edith Somerville
for the first time, while staying in the village of Castletownshend, in Cork.
Collis, Maurice. Somerville and Ross: A Biography. Faber and Faber.
39, 25-8
Cronin, John. Somerville and Ross. Bucknell University Press.
14
Occupation
Constance Smedley
Since the Langham Place Group
had provided a social space for women in 1860, several organizations had already challenged the flourishing institution of men's clubs. The Lyceum Club
came on the scene at a time...
Family and Intimate relationships
Ethel Smyth
ES
met Edith Somerville
, with whom she conducted an emotionally-charged correspondence for several years.
Collis, Louise. Impetuous Heart: The Story of Ethel Smyth. William Kimber.
152, 156-8, 161
Friends, Associates
Katherine Cecil Thurston
Through these social engagements, KCT
came into contact with several significant figures of the day. At a dinner given by Colonel George Harvey
, for instance, she probably met Mr
and Mrs Winston Churchill
...
Residence
Katharine Tynan
In the autumn of 1914, KT
's husband
moved from their current home, Clarebeg at Shankill near Dublin, to County Mayo in Western Ireland, where he had been appointed the Resident Magistrate. He held...
Textual Production
Oscar Wilde
Wilde shifted the magazine's focus from fashion and transformed it into an organ for women's opinions and feelings on the subjects of modern life, art, and literature, as well as style. He was also dedicated...
