Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
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.
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
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, 1940.
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, 1827.
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., 1972.
249
Molloy, Joseph Fitzgerald. The Most Gorgeous Lady Blessington. 4th ed., Downey, 1896.
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
Maria Jane Jewsbury
Anonymity gave MJJ
freedom to satirize contemporary literary culture—particularly male writers.
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
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...
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
