L. E. L.

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Standard Name: L. E. L.
Birth Name: Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Pseudonym: L.
Pseudonym: L. E. L.
Used Form: LEL
Used Form: L.E.L.
LEL was one of the most prolific and popular authors of her day. She produced an immense corpus of poetry, several works of fiction (the first a particularly striking silver fork novel), and considerable review and editorial work. Her work more than any other popularized the persona of the lovelorn, doomed poetess in the early nineteenth century.
Black and white photograph of a three-quarter length drawing of L.E.L. in chalk and pencil by Daniel Maclise, early 1830s. She is wearing a white dress whose wasp waist is accentuated by a broad belt, large billowing skirt and upper sleeves, and high standaway collar. Her dark, shining hair is centre-parted and pulled back, with tiny kiss-curls below and a tall, plaited arrangement above. Her expression is languishing. National Portrait Gallery.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Camilla Crosland
Since she was well-connected in London literary circles, she was able to include in her memoir recollections of time spent working with the annuals and of literary figures such as Grace Aguilar , Lady Blessington
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Anne Katharine Elwood
Some of the British women writers discussed in the text remain well-known, but others have slipped into obscurity. Memoirs includes: Lady Mary Wortley Montagu , Griselda Murray , Frances Seymour, Lady Hertford , Hester Lynch Piozzi
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Maria Jane Jewsbury
Anonymity gave MJJ freedom to satirize contemporary literary culture—particularly male writers.
Clarke, Norma. Ambitious Heights. Routledge.
36
The Young Author, which first appeared in 1825 in Literary Souvenir, depicts a self-styled genius churning out reviews, album verse, love...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Elizabeth Barrett Browning
The title piece is a lyrical drama depicting, largely in the form of a conversation between two angels, the crucifixion of Christ. Among the accompanying pieces were several on literary personages or topics: To Mary Russell Mitford
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Shorter pieces here include many sonnets, the most striking and complex of which are perhaps the two dedicated to George Sand that explore the apparent contradictions of gender and genius. To George Sand. A Desire...
Textual Production Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington
Marguerite Blessington issued her first number as editor of the Book of Beauty (an annual Christmas gift book, then in its second year); she succeeded L.E.L. in this post.
Adburgham, Alison. Women in Print: Writing Women and Women’s Magazines from the Restoration to the Accession of Victoria. George Allen and Unwin Ltd.
249
Molloy, Joseph Fitzgerald. The Most Gorgeous Lady Blessington. Downey.
233
Textual Production Mary Howitt
On L. E. L. 's marriage MH took over from her the editorship of the annual or gift book Fisher's Drawing-Room Scrapbook, for which she did much writing; she did not, however, enjoy this work.
Dunicliff, Joy. Mary Howitt: Another Lost Victorian Writer. Excalibur Press of London.
90
Textual Production Sarah Stickney Ellis
SSE edited Fisher's Drawing-Room Scrapbook at some point following LEL 's death in 1838. In this she voiced her own admiration of Elizabeth Fry , as well as contributing much of the verse for the years 1843-45.
Landow, George P., editor. Victorian Research Web. http://www.victorianweb.org/.
Boyle, Andrew. An Index to the Annuals. Andrew Boyle.
88
Textual Production Emma Roberts
ER contributed to women's literary history with a memoir of her friend L. E. L. for the latter's posthumous The Zenana, and Minor Poems, 1839.
Textual Production Catherine Fanshawe
The letters that CF sent to Anne Grant are not extant, but Grant's side of the correspondence leaves no doubt that the two were in constant dialogue about new books they had read, and their...
Textual Production Christina Rossetti
CR composed the desolate poem L.E.L., which pays elegiac tribute to a female predecessor.
Rossetti, Christina. The Complete Poems of Christina Rossetti. Editor Crump, Rebecca W., Louisiana State University Press.
1: 153-5, 288
Textual Production Agnes Strickland
Even before settling in London, AS began her professional authorial career with tales for children, many published in The Parting Gift, of which she was at that time the editor.
Pope-Hennessy, Una. Agnes Strickland: Biographer of the Queens of England. Chatto and Windus.
22
She published...
Textual Production Mary Ann Browne
She quotes L. E. L. on her title page, and dedicates her work (these early efforts of my timid Muse)
Browne, Mary Ann. Mont Blanc. Hatchard and Son.
v
to Princess Augusta Sophia . A preface by an unnamed male friend...
Textual Features Mary Oxlie
The poem gives ten lines to humble self-deprecation, in iambic pentameter couplets: a metre which serves to separate this passage from the rest, since the remaining 42 lines, which praise Drummond 's descriptive powers, are...
Textual Features Dorothy Wellesley
DW 's selection, though, demonstrates a serious interest in women's literary and feminist history. Of the selections whose authors can be identified, almost half are women. Though Marguerite, Lady Blessington , doyenne of the albums...

Timeline

January 1833: The annual Heath's Book of Beauty began publication;...

Writing climate item

January 1833

The annual Heath's Book of Beauty began publication; the first number was edited by L. E. L.

Texts

L. E. L.,. A Birthday Tribute. Fisher, 1837.
Staël, Germaine de. Corinne; or, Italy. Translators Hill, Isabel and L. E. L., R. Bentley, 1833.
Staël, Germaine de. Corinne; or, Italy. Translators Hill, Isabel and L. E. L., A. L. Burt, 1857.
L. E. L.,. “Critical Materials”. Letitia Elizabeth Landon: Selected Writings, edited by Jerome McGann and Daniel Riess, Broadview, 1997, p. various pages.
L. E. L.,. Critical Writings by Letitia Elizabeth Landon. Editor Sypher, Francis Jacques, Scholar’s Facsimilies and Reprints, 1996.
L. E. L.,. Duty and Inclination. H. Colburn, 1838.
L. E. L.,. Ethel Churchill. H. Colburn, 1837.
L. E. L.,. Ethel Churchill. Editor Sypher, Francis Jacques, Scholar’s Facsimiles and Reprints, 1992.
L. E. L.,. Flowers of Loveliness. Ackermann, 1838.
L. E. L.,. Francesca Carrara. R. Bentley, 1834.
L. E. L., and Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington, editors. Heath’s Book of Beauty. Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longman.
L. E. L.,. “Introduction”. The Fate of Adelaide, edited by Francis Jacques Sypher, Scholars’ Facsimiles and Reprints, 1990.
L. E. L.,. “Introduction”. Poetical Works of Letitia Elizabeth Landon "L.E.L.", edited by Francis Jacques Sypher, Scholars’ Facsimiles & Reprints, 1990, pp. 9-22.
L. E. L.,. Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. Henry Colburn, 1842.
L. E. L.,. Letitia Elizabeth Landon: Selected Writings. Editors McGann, Jerome and Daniel Riess, Broadview, 1997.
Blanchard, Samuel Laman, and L. E. L. Life and Literary Remains of L.E.L. H. Colburn, 1841.
L. E. L.,. Poetical Works of Letitia Elizabeth Landon. Editor Sypher, Francis Jacques, Scholars’ Facsimiles and Reprints, 1990.
L. E. L.,. Romance and Reality. H. Colburn and R. Bentley, 1831.
L. E. L.,. The Easter Gift. Fisher, 1832.
L. E. L.,. The Fate of Adelaide. J. Warren, 1821.
L. E. L.,. The Fate of Adelaide. Editor Sypher, Francis Jacques, Scholars’ Facsimilies and Reprints, 1990.
L. E. L.,. The Improvisatrice. Hurst, Robinson, 1824.
L. E. L.,. The Troubadour. Hurst, Robinson, 1825.
L. E. L.,. The Venetian Bracelet. Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, 1829.
L. E. L.,. The Vow of the Peacock. Saunders and Otley, 1835.