Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Rosina Bulwer Lytton, Baroness Lytton
-
Standard Name: Lytton, Rosina Bulwer Lytton,,, Baroness
Birth Name: Rosina Wheeler
Married Name: Rosina Bulwer Lytton
Pseudonym: Hon. George Scott
RBLBL
wrote prolifically after her separation from her husband in 1836, penning sixteen novels, as well as a collection of essays and an autobiography. A vein of polemic runs through her work regarding the treatment of women, particularly married women, under nineteenth-century British law. She encountered great difficulty in getting her work published because of her notoriety and the pressure that her husband, a successful novelist, exerted on publishers. He even obtained legal injunctions against her work, which often parodied him.
Blain, Virginia. “Rosina Bulwer Lytton and the Rage of the Unheard”. The Huntington Library Quarterly, Vol.
By the time LEL began living alone, she was well-known in literary circles. She became a good friend of Emma Roberts
and Rosina Bulwer-Lytton
around this time, and gradually became a recognized London public figure...
Friends, Associates
L. E. L.
LEL
's friends Anna Maria Hall
, Katherine Thomson
, and Rosina Bulwer Lytton
defended her reputation against scandal. However, around the time of this broken engagement, Lytton began to credit her husband's account of...
Cultural formation
L. E. L.
There are indications, however, that a rather suspect class standing contributed along with somewhat bohemian behaviour to the difficulty she had about weathering scandal. Benjamin Disraeli
famously and snobbishly wrote of a party at the
Friends, Associates
Lady Caroline Lamb
LCL
's friendships with women writers (besides Morgan) would surprise anyone not taking her seriously as a writer. When Germaine de Staël
visited England, Lady Caroline was delighted to find her wearing a hat with...
Fictionalization
Lady Caroline Lamb
The other great love of her life, her husband, was equally productive for fictionalized versions of her character and doings. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography cites among novels dealing with her marriage Thomas Lister
Family and Intimate relationships
Constance Lytton
CL
's father, Edward Robert Bulwer
(first earl Lytton) or Owen Meredith, was a child of the abusive marriage between two writers, Rosina Bulwer Lytton
and Edward Bulwer
(later Bulwer-Lytton). Edward Robert became a...
Family and Intimate relationships
Constance Lytton
Her paternal grandmother, Rosina Bulwer Lytton
, became a novelist and a supporter of women's rights after separating from her husband. She died on 12 March 1882, when Constance was just thirteen. For Constance (who...
Literary responses
Elizabeth Melvill
Comments on Ane Godlie Dreame, though sparse, have been persistent. John Livingstone
recorded that she was famous for her dream anent her spirituall condition.
Baxter, Jamie Reid. “Elizabeth Melville, Lady Culross: new light from Fife”. The Innes Review, Vol.
68
, No. 1, pp. 38-77.
40
John Armstrong
in 1770 thought it almost too terrible...
Occupation
Frances Arabella Rowden
FAR
was clearly a key element, perhaps the key element, in the success of the Hans Place school. She taught the general curriculum there for nearly twenty-five years, from its founding until 1818, and she...
Friends, Associates
Elizabeth Isabella Spence
During the 1820s Spence and Benger, then past their youth and each living on a pittance, were associated in running a salon on the model of those of the rich (like Lady Holland) or the...
Friends, Associates
Sydney Owenson, Lady Morgan
In London in 1824 she had a socially unsuccessful meeting with Wordsworth
, who was by now a thorough reactionary in politics. He went to some pains to snub her; she refused to notice this...
Textual Features
Flora Tristan
One chapter, entitled English Women, criticizes British social systems, and details the consequences women suffer because of the indissolubility of marriage.
Tristan, Flora. Flora Tristan’s London Journal, 1840. Translators Palmer, Dennis and Giselle Pincetl, Charles River Books.
198
FT
shows particular sympathy for Rosina Bulwer Lytton
, whom she depicts...
Intertextuality and Influence
Frances Trollope
FT
's years of literary success were marked by tragedy: she lost two of her children to consumption, and eventually lost a third.
Nadel, Ira Bruce, and William E. Fredeman, editors. Dictionary of Literary Biography 21. Gale Research.
21: 324
Heineman, Helen. Mrs. Trollope: The Triumphant Feminine in the Nineteenth Century. Ohio University Press.
135
However, her writing brought her into a supportive network...
Family and Intimate relationships
Anna Wheeler
After twelve years of marriage, AW
took both her daughters (of whom the younger, Rosina
, was the future novelist Rosina Bulwer Lytton) and left her husband
.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Sadleir, Michael. Bulwer: A Panorama. Constable.
72-3
Kelly, Gary, editor. Dictionary of Literary Biography 158. Gale Research.
349
Family and Intimate relationships
Anna Wheeler
The younger daughter, Rosina
(born on 4 November 1802), as Rosina Bulwer Lytton, Baroness Lytton, achieved some fame as a novelist and notoriety as a woman violently at odds with her husband.
