Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Barbara Hofland
-
Standard Name: Hofland, Barbara
Birth Name: Barbara Wreaks
Married Name: Barbara Hoole
Married Name: Barbara Hofland
Pseudonym: An Old-Fashioned Englishman
Pseudonym: Benjamin Blunderhead, Esq.
Pseudonym: The Author of an Officer's Widow and her Young
Family
Pseudonym: The Author of Says She to Her Neighbour, What?
In forty years of writing BH
produced nearly seventy titles, not all discussed here (besides doubtful attributions). They include books for children or young adults and adult novels, with some poems, plays, guidebooks, and handbooks on artistic topics. More than 300,000 copies were sold in Britain and as many, proportionately to population, in the USA. Many were translated, covering most European languages.
Ramsay, Thomas. The Life and Literary Remains of Barbara Hofland. W. J. Cleaver, 1849.
viii
Though her titles fall naturally into groups, named (in later parlance branded) from family relationships (notably widows as struggling, successful single mothers), or virtues, or boys' careers in the expanding British empire, BH
always varies her formulas. Her novels for the adult market are independent in their attitudes, expressing an original and thinking mind.
There was another edition or issue at York. This second collection of EKM
's poems, divided into Sonnets, Elegies, Odes, and Ballads, reprints pieces both from her earlier collection and from her novel What...
Education
Christina Rossetti
Christina and her siblings were educated by their mother
, in reading, writing, the Bible and rudimentary French. The boys were sent to school when they were seven, while the girls continued at home. Their...
Family and Intimate relationships
Maria Edgeworth
Maria mourned so intensely that she fell ill. She was pleased by a letter from Barbara Hofland
recognising the very special nature of her loss; on the other hand she was offended at Elizabeth Inchbald
Friends, Associates
Mary Ann Kelty
Little is known of any literary contacts of MAK
. She met and became a friend of Barbara Hofland
, and in the early 1830s she sought [the] acquaintance by letter of Harriet Martineau
...
Friends, Associates
Eliza Fay
At some unknown date EF
met the novelist Barbara Hofland
, to whom she related the incident about the alleged buying of the slave.
Hofland, Barbara. The Captives in India. R. Bentley, 1834, 3 vols.
1: 193ff
Friends, Associates
Mary Russell Mitford
Among her earlier literary friends, MRM
wrote with particular warmth of Barbara Hofland
(with whom she stayed in London for the first night of her play Julian), Eleanor Porden
, and Joanna Baillie
...
The thousand subscribers to SP
's first publication suggest that she had an impressive circle of friends and contacts in Sheffield and also in the Channel Islands. She and her writings were well known...
Intertextuality and Influence
Eliza Meteyard
This illustrated story of a young girl's childhood and education has some autobiographical elements (Howitt calls it her own early life),
qtd. in
Lee, Amice. Laurels & Rosemary: The Life of William and Mary Howitt. Oxford University Press, 1955.
188
including the profession of the army surgeon father of the eponymous character...
Jung, Sandro. “Susanna Pearson and the Elegiac Lyric”. Studia Neophilologica: A Journal of Germanic and Romance Languages and Literature, Vol.
78
, No. 2, 8 Mar. 2006, pp. 153-64.
153n2
Basker, James G., editor. Amazing Grace. Yale University Press, 2002.
412
of Charlotte, Countess Fitzwilliam
(c. 1750-13 May 1822), to whom she dedicated her first publication. Lady Fitzwilliam was also a patron to Barbara Hofland
and...
Author summary
Elizabeth Meeke
EM
, who was not correctly identified until 2013, was unusually prolific among novelists (twenty-six titles), children's writers, and translators of the Romantic period. (She also compiled an anthology for children.) She issued through the...
Textual Production
Sarah Pearson
It seems that SP
continued to value her writing, while recognising that it was not valued by others. She kept a considerable archive, but instructed her friend Barbara Hofland
in her will to read all...
Textual Production
Catherine Gore
The title of CG
's anonymous novel Women as They Are; or, The Manners of the Day, linked it to a reformist tradition running from Robert Bage
in 1792, through Barbara Hofland
in 1815...
6 November 1817: Princess Charlotte died at 2.30 a.m. after...
National or international item
6 November 1817
Princess Charlotte
died at 2.30 a.m. after delivering a stillborn son. Poor clinical judgement was to blame; intense national mourning and controversy followed.
Towler, Jean. Midwives in History and Society. Croom Helm, 1986.
142-4
Bynum, William F. Science and the Practice of Medicine in the Nineteenth Century. Cambridge University Press, 1994.
205
Macalpine, Ida, and Richard Hunter. George III and the Mad-Business. Allen Lane, 1969.
241-2
Gentleman’s Magazine. Various publishers.
2 (1817): 449
Texts
Hofland, Barbara et al. A Descriptive Account of the Mansion and Gardens at White-Knights. Printed for his Grace the Duke of Marlborough by W. Wilson, 1819.
Hofland, Barbara. A Father as He Should Be. Minerva, 1815, 4 vols.
Hofland, Barbara. A Season at Harrogate. R. Wilson, 1812.
Hofland, Barbara. A Visit to London; or, Emily and her Friends. Minerva, 1814, 4 vols.
Hofland, Barbara. Adelaide; or, The Intrepid Daughter. J. Harris, 1823.
Hofland, Barbara. Africa Described. Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green, 1828.
Hofland, Barbara. Alfred Campbell, the Young Pilgrim. J. Harris, 1825.
Hofland, Barbara. An Englishwoman’s Letter to Mrs. Hannah More. J. Hatchard, 1820.
Hofland, Barbara. Beatrice. Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green, 1829, 3 vols.
Hofland, Barbara. Daniel Dennison; and, The Cumberland Statesman. R. Bentley, 1846, 3 vols.
Hofland, Barbara. Decision. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green, 1824.
Hofland, Barbara. Description of the House and Museum on the North Side of Lincoln’s Inn Fields, the residence of Sir John Soane. Printed by Levey, Robson, and Franklyn, 1835.
Hofland, Barbara. Ellen, the Teacher. J. Harris, 1814, 2 vols.
Hofland, Barbara. Emily’s Reward; or, The Holiday Trip to Paris. Grant and Griffith, 1844.
Hofland, Barbara. Energy. A. K. Newman, 1838.
Hofland, Barbara. Farewell Tales. A. K. Newman, 1840.
Hofland, Barbara. Fortitude. A. K. Newman, 1835.
Hofland, Barbara. Humility. A. K. Newman, 1837.
Hofland, Barbara. Integrity. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown, 1823.
Hofland, Barbara. Iwanowna; or, The Maid of Moscow. G. and S. Robinson, 1813, 2 vols.
Hofland, Barbara. Little Dramas for Young People. Longman, Hurst, Rees and Orme, 1810.
Hofland, Barbara. Little Manuel, the Captive Boy. Garland, 1978.
Hofland, Barbara. Matilda; or, The Barbadoes Girl. Minerva, 1816.
Hofland, Barbara. Moderation. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green, 1825.
Hofland, Barbara. Patience. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green, 1824.