Elizabeth Sarah Gooch

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Standard Name: Gooch, Elizabeth Sarah
Birth Name: Elizabeth Sarah Villa-Real
Indexed Name: Elizabeth Sarah Real
Married Name: Sarah Elizabeth Gooch
Indexed Name: Mrs Gooch
Indexed Name: Elizabeth Sarah Goortz
Indexed Name: Elizabeth Sarah Villa-Real Gooch
ESG 's writing career began in the later eighteenth century with a sizeable pamphlet justifying her role in the quarrel with her estranged husband which had landed her in debtors' prison. From this she moved on to further life-writing (courtesan autobiography), published poetry, further works which blend autobiography with fiction and essay-type material, and finally to sentimental novels. Self-vindication and the need for money were her chief motives, but she has a real gift for expressing both mood and argument. Reviewers gradually shifted over the course of her career from sympathy to contempt.
Oval print of Elizabeth Sarah Gooch, wearing a wig with ostrich feathers on top. Her own hair is visible below the wig, hanging in loose curls on her shoulders. She has a pendant hanging in her many-ruffled neckline.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Friends, Associates Leah Sumbel
Mary Wells (later LS ) drew her female friends from both the theatre and the demi-monde: they included Elizabeth Sarah Gooch and Mary Robinson , as well as the highly respectable Elizabeth Inchbald .
Textual Production Barbarina Brand, Baroness Dacre
Petrarch enjoyed great popularity in England at this time, in large part owing to the scholarly work of Susannah Dobson . Other poets channelled his voice (like Charlotte Smith, Anne Bannerman, Ann Yearsley, and Mary...

Timeline

June 1787: Thomas Bellamy launched The General Magazine...

Writing climate item

June 1787

Thomas Bellamy launched The General Magazine and Impartial Review, which continued with variations in subtitle until December 1792.

Texts

Gooch, Elizabeth Sarah. An Appeal to the Public. G. Kearsley, 1788.
Gooch, Elizabeth Sarah, and Thomas Bellamy. “Biographical Particulars of the Author”. The Beggar Boy, Earle and Hemet, 1801, p. 1: i - xxxvi.
Bournon-Malarmé, Charlotte. Can We Doubt It?; or, The Genuine History of Two Families of Norwich. Translator Gooch, Elizabeth Sarah, B. Crosby, 1804.
Gooch, Elizabeth Sarah. Fancied Events. George Cawthorn, 1799.
Gooch, Elizabeth Sarah. Poems on Various Subjects. J. Bell, 1793.
Gooch, Elizabeth Sarah. Sherwood Forest. S. Highley, 1804.
Gooch, Elizabeth Sarah. The Contrast. Printed for the author and sold by C. and G. Kearsley, 1795.
Gooch, Elizabeth Sarah. The Life of Mrs Gooch. Printed for the authoress and sold by C. and G. Kearsley, 1792.
Gooch, Elizabeth Sarah. The Wanderings of the Imagination. B. Crosby, 1796.
Gooch, Elizabeth Sarah. Truth and Fiction. Cawthorn, 1801.