Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Geraldine Jewsbury
-
Standard Name: Jewsbury, Geraldine
Birth Name: Geraldine Endsor Jewsbury
During her life, Geraldine Jewsbury
wrote six novels and two books for children. Widely published in Victorian periodicals, she was a respected reviewer, editor, and translator. Her periodical publications ranged from theatre reviews, short fiction, and children's literature to articles on social issues and religion. GJ
greatly influenced the Victorian publishing industry and public taste through her position as reviewer for the Athenæum and her role as reader for publishers Richard Bentley and Son
and Hurst and Blackett
.
Geraldine Jewsbury
made an attempt to compile her sister
's works into a memorial volume. Ultimately, she could not complete the project because the writings were in the hands of MJJ
's husband
, who...
Reception
Matilda Hays
Jewsbury
found inartistic the innovative construction of the narrative, which opens with Lord Charles's second marriage, and then flashes back to introduce Adrienne Hope eight years earlier, so that the story of his wooing of...
Reception
Julia Kavanagh
Geraldine Jewsbury
defended her: The Hobbies is, on the whole, the most foolish novel we have ever read: its publication is an insult to the public; and that Miss Kavanagh should have strictly refused to...
Jewsbury
, again reviewing in the Athenæum, called this work a pleasant contribution to the literature of the times.
Athenæum. J. Lection.
1826 (1862): 528
She continued (folding together the woman writer with her work in a...
Publishing
Harriet Martineau
HM
seems to have considered the wide circulation of Dickens
's Household Words too good an opportunity for influence to be passed up. Among the stories she contributed were Woodruffe the Gardener, The People...
It was a request from Bentley's
for rewriting (following a vehemently negative report on Not Wisely, but Too Well in manuscript from reader Geraldine Jewsbury
) that caused RB
's second-written novel to appear in...
Publishing
George Eliot
The first number of the Westminster Review to appear under her anonymous (and unpaid) editorship was that of January 1852, which was also the first under John Chapman
's ownership. One of her own contributions...
Publishing
Ouida
The success of Ouida's Strathmore had led publisher RichardBentley
to consider luring her from Chapman and Hall
; while Under Two Flags was still in manuscript, he commissioned a reader's report from Geraldine Jewsbury
Literary responses
Isabella Banks
Geraldine Jewsbury
, reviewing for the Athenæum, called this novel intrepid. But, she wrote, [s]ensational beyond the usual high-water mark, it overflows all the banks and bounds of probability.
Athenæum. J. Lection.
2098 (1868): 54
The Athenaeum Index of Reviews and Reviewers: 1830-1870. http://replay.web.archive.org/20070714065452/http://www.soi.city.ac.uk/~asp/v2/home.html.
Literary responses
Emily Shirreff
The reviewer for the Athenæum, Geraldine Jewsbury
, declared that this was an excellent book, not only for its wise counsel on the education of women, but for the element of genial good sense...
Literary responses
Ouida
The Athenæum's mixed review of the published novel is also attributed to Jewsbury
. It ostensibly applauds the book's readability and pluck while implicitly criticizing its implausibility. The characters, for example, are described as...
Literary responses
Julia Stretton
This novel attracted a chorus of praise. Geraldine Jewsbury
in the Athenæum recommended it very strongly. She found it fresh and original, in the main unpreachy, and wrote that if Margaret was a little too...
Literary responses
Mary Anne Barker
Geraldine Jewsbury
, reviewing this book for the Athenæum, expressed her delight and hoped for the future appearance of analogous books for Easter, or a birthday, or any day and every day all the...
