Marguerite Gardiner Countess of Blessington

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Marguerite Blessington wrote non-fiction, poetry, and novels, many of them in the silver-fork category. Although she was a popular novelist in her day, well reviewed and respected by a number of other writers, her account of her conversations with Byron remains the work for which she is remembered. Other works combine memoir with travel writing. In accounts of the literary milieu she is remembered for her editorship of annuals in the 1830s and 1840s and as a brilliant literary hostess.
  • BirthName: Margaret Power
    Both Molloy and the ODNB give this as her christened name.
    Molloy, Joseph Fitzgerald. The Most Gorgeous Lady Blessington. 4th ed., Downey, 1896.
    1

  • Self-constructed: Marguerite
    She changed her name to Marguerite at the time of her second marriage.
    Blessington, Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of. “Introduction”. Conversations of Lord Byron, edited by Ernest J., Jr Lovell, Princeton University Press, 1969, pp. 3-114.
    11
  • Married: Farmer; Countess of Blessington
  • Pseudonyms: The Author of the Magic Lantern; The Author of Sketches and Fragments
  • Titled:
  • Indexed: Gardiner
Painting of Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington, by Thomas Lawrence, 1822. She sits in a red chair with an ermine cloak beside her, wearing an ivory dress with short puff sleeves and low décolleté with a sprig of flowers. Her dark, lustrous hair is smoothed tightly back into loops behind her head.

Milestones

1 September 1789

Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington , was born Margaret Power in Knockbrit, near Clonmel in Tipperary.
Editor Paula R. Feldman gives the year as 1790.
Feldman, Paula R., editor. British Women Poets of the Romantic Era. John Hopkins University Press, 1997.
147
Molloy, Joseph Fitzgerald. The Most Gorgeous Lady Blessington. 4th ed., Downey, 1896.
1

2 March 1822

One of four parts of Marguerite Blessington 's first publication, The Magic Lantern; or, Sketches of Scenes in the Metropolis, appeared anonymously in the Literary Gazette.
Blessington, Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of. “Introduction”. Conversations of Lord Byron, edited by Ernest J., Jr Lovell, Princeton University Press, 1969, pp. 3-114.
12

Spring 1831

Marguerite Blessington 's financial difficulties propelled her into incessant activity as an editor of and contributor to magazines and annuals.
Feldman, Paula R., editor. British Women Poets of the Romantic Era. John Hopkins University Press, 1997.
149

July 1832-December 1833

A Journal of the Conversations of Lord Byron with the Countess of Blessington appeared in the New Monthly Magazine.
Molloy, Joseph Fitzgerald. The Most Gorgeous Lady Blessington. 4th ed., Downey, 1896.
219

February 1834

Conversations of Lord Byron with the Countess of Blessington appeared in volume form.
Blessington, Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of. “Introduction”. Conversations of Lord Byron, edited by Ernest J., Jr Lovell, Princeton University Press, 1969, pp. 3-114.
3
Feldman, Paula R., editor. British Women Poets of the Romantic Era. John Hopkins University Press, 1997.
149

4 June 1849

Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington , died of heart disease in Paris, where she had lived for only a couple of months.
Molloy, Joseph Fitzgerald. The Most Gorgeous Lady Blessington. 4th ed., Downey, 1896.
440-1

By 5 January 1850

Marguerite, Countess of Blessington 's Country Quarters. A Novel was published posthumously with a memoir of the author by her niece M. A. Power .
Athenæum. J. Lection.
1158 (1850): 16

Biography

Birth and Family

1 September 1789

Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington , was born Margaret Power in Knockbrit, near Clonmel in Tipperary.
Editor Paula R. Feldman gives the year as 1790.
Feldman, Paula R., editor. British Women Poets of the Romantic Era. John Hopkins University Press, 1997.
147
Molloy, Joseph Fitzgerald. The Most Gorgeous Lady Blessington. 4th ed., Downey, 1896.
1

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