Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Sir Walter Scott
-
Standard Name: Scott, Sir Walter
Birth Name: Walter Scott
Titled: Sir Walter Scott
Nickname: The Great Unknown
Used Form: author of Kenilworth
The remarkable career of Walter Scott
began with a period as a Romantic poet (the leading Romantic poet in terms of popularity) before he went on to achieve even greater popularity as a novelist, particularly for his historical fiction and Scottish national tales. His well-earned fame in both these genres of fiction has tended to create the impression that he originated them, whereas in fact women novelists had preceded him in each.
CIJ
is remarkable both for her pioneering of the Scottish national tale (in the early nineteenth century, neck and neck with Sir Walter Scott
) and for her long-continuing career in journalism, as contributor and...
Textual Production
Christian Isobel Johnstone
She published this anonymously. Another edition of the same year has the Edinburgh imprint only. She claims that the first half of the work was set up in print before she had seen Scott
's...
Literary responses
Christian Isobel Johnstone
Scott
gave this novel qualified praise. He seemed to see it in the light of a legitimate competitor but not a serious rival. Read Elizth. de Bruce—it is very clever but does not show...
Textual Production
Jackie Kay
JK
was one of twenty Scottish authors invited to contribute a monologue to a collaborative work entitled Dear Scotland, which was first performed by the Scottish National Theatre
on 24 April 2014 as a...
Intertextuality and Influence
Mary Ann Kelty
The book bears in various details the influence of Jane Austen
, though its overall project of pious didacticism is at odds with Austen's approach. The title-page quotes Rousseau
on the topic of the sensitive...
Education
Fanny Kemble
Fanny's reading here was important to her. She later regarded her close knowledge of the Bible as the greatest benefit I derived from my school training,
She toured England, Scotland, and Ireland with the Covent Garden Theatre
company, met Walter Scott
, and was feted by Lady Morgan
in Dublin.
Marshall, Dorothy. Fanny Kemble. Weidenfeld and Nicholson.
54-6
In May of 1831 she was presented...
Intertextuality and Influence
L. E. L.
LEL recalled devising poetry during her early childhood in East Barnet, where she moved at the age of seven: I cannot remember the time when composition in some shape or other was not a...
Literary responses
Emily Lawless
The Literary World vividly likened experiencing this novel to reading the life of a past century by lightning flashes, and the half-blinded reader reads on and on and cannot stop or look away short of...
Literary responses
Emily Lawless
First reviews of With Essex in Ireland were mixed. The New York Tribune felt the work to be uneven, partly on account of Harvey's narration and partly for lack of an adequately engaging plot.
New York Tribune.
(28 December 1890): 14
Reception
Alice Dixon Le Plongeon
The The Brooklyn Daily Eagle likened its style to that of Sir Walter Scott
's The Lady of the Lake. This notice is more summary than review, but it notes: So far as possible...
Intertextuality and Influence
Sophia Lee
The Recess was highly influential: in its basic technique of inserting fictive persons among actual historical ones, in its polarization of Elizabeth
and Mary
, and in its heavily sentimental tone. Writers directly influenced by...
Education
Doris Lessing
Before attending school and after she left, Doris educated herself by reading. Her parents possessed copies of the classics, like Scott
, Dickens
, and Kipling
. She read widely in the nineteenth century—her favourites...
Intertextuality and Influence
Elizabeth B. Lester
Its title-page quotes from Akenside
, but the tutelary genius of the novel is Shakespeare
, several of whose plays have left their mark on it. The story opens (recalling two of Mrs Ross
's...
Textual Features
Amy Levy
She continued: The Jew, as we know him to-day, with his curious mingling of diametrically opposed qualities; his surprising virtues and no less surprising vices; leading his eager, intricate life; living, moving, and having his...
