Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Amelia Opie
-
Standard Name: Opie, Amelia
Birth Name: Amelia Alderson
Married Name: Amelia Opie
Pseudonym: N.
AO
, who was publishing at the end of the eighteenth century and during the earlier nineteenth century, is best known as a novelist, but was also a dramatist, poet, and short-story writer. The opinions expressed in her writings are often reactionary in gender terms, though she was brought up a Unitarian
and later became a Quaker
and an active Abolitionist.
The title-page quotes Byron
pronouncing shame to the land of the Gaul.
Gore, Catherine. The Lettre de Cachet; and, The Reign of Terror. J. Andrews.
title-page
A preface combats the general prejudice against a single volume
Gore, Catherine. The Lettre de Cachet; and, The Reign of Terror. J. Andrews.
iii
by citing works of fiction which are short but widely admired...
Friends, Associates
Henry Peter, Baron Brougham
Brougham had a number of friends among women writers. He was at primary school in Edinburgh with Susan Ferrier
(who, however, declined to acknowledge him later, probably for political reasons). His political work brought him...
Textual Production
Barbara Hofland
BH
's correspondence with Mary Russell Mitford
(whose earliest surviving letter dates from 25 May 1820) reveals her as an active and eclectic reader. The two women exchanged responses to Anna Maria Porter
, Amelia Opie
Literary responses
Barbara Hofland
In the early 1820s BH
seems to have been at the apex of her career. She was appreciated not only by her friend Mary Russell Mitford
(who believed that nobody else could combine so much...
Textual Production
Margaret Holford
The American-born British officer Spencer Thomas Vassall, aged forty, was mortally wounded while leading his troops at the storming of Montevideo on 3 February 1807. His body was brought home and buried at Bristol under...
Friends, Associates
Matilda Charlotte Houstoun
In later years MCH
continued to maintain relations with several significant literary figures. She was once visited by Frances Trollope
, whom she described as A genial, natural woman, not especially refined, but far too...
politics
Anna Brownell Jameson
ABJ
went to the LondonWorld Anti-Slavery Convention in the company of Lady Byron
, Amelia Opie
, and Marion Reid
.
Johnston, Judith. Anna Jameson: Victorian, Feminist, Woman of Letters. Scolar Press.
xii
Textual Features
Christian Isobel Johnstone
Johnstone's Edinburgh Magazine was heavily political in content, while Tait's was designed to have greater appeal to the general reader.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Between 1832 and 1846 (when she retired) CIJ
contributed over four hundred articles to the...
IK
's first, anonymous novel, Madeline; or, The Castle of Montgomery, was advertised as just published, in the same year as her first book of poetry.
Amelia Opie
re-used the first part of this...
Intertextuality and Influence
Maria Theresa Kemble
The title alludes to Hannah Cowley
's very popular The Belle's Stratagem, 1780. MTK
's heroine, like hers, is lively and witty. Lady Emily spars verbally with her suitor O'Donolan, and keeps her freedom...
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...
Literary responses
Lady Caroline Lamb
William Lamb
worried intensely about the probable reception of Ada Reis, particularly the scenes in hell, and he tried to enlist William Gifford
of the Quarterly as an ally in pressuring Caroline to tone...
Textual Features
Elizabeth B. Lester
Both these novels feature French and Latin tags in their text, but lack epigraphs at the head of chapters. The Quakers, which Garside calls Opie
-esque, is written in a confident, literary style and...
Textual Production
Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington
This work involved her in finding—and engaging in voluminous correspondence with—contributors (who often were or became her personal friends), such as Anna Maria Hall
, Felicia Hemans
, Amelia Opie
, Mary Russell Mitford
,...
Timeline
No timeline events available.
Texts
Opie, Amelia. The Warrior’s Return, and Other Poems. Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, 1808.