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.
MEC
was educated at home. She read widely during her childhood, including works by Shakespeare
and Malory
. She studied poetry, history and drawing. Saturday afternoons were spent with friends, acting scenes from Scott
's...
Education
Pauline Johnson
PJ
was educated at home first by her mother
, who introduced her to the English Romantics. She was also taught by a governess in her early years. Chiefswood was full of books, and she...
Education
Maria Theresa Longworth
MTL
was educated in France at an Ursuline convent school.
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder.
She later undertook further study in Italy. She consequently became familiar with both French and Italian.
Rosenman, Ellen Bayuk. Unauthorized Pleasures. Cornell University Press.
137
Erickson, Arvel B., and John R. McCarthy. “The Yelverton Case: Civil Legislation and Marriage”. Victorian Studies, Vol.
14
, pp. 275-91.
275
From her writings it is clear...
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...
Education
Mary Sewell
At the age of fifteen she ceased regular study, and began reading on her own. She spent much of the time at Friends
' meetings going over passages from Byron
, Southey
, Moore
...
Education
John Ruskin
Taught at home until the age of fourteen by his parents and private tutors, JR
developed his drawing, and received an education that encouraged a love of Romantic Literature (including Byron
, Wordsworth
, and...
Education
Ella Baker
EB
was educated at home, chiefly by her sister Amy. At the age of thirteen, she recited Sir Walter Scott
's long romantic poem The Lady of the Lake from memory, on a challenge from...
Education
Marie Corelli
Looking back on her early education, MC
wrote I managed to develop into a curiously determined independent little personality, with ideas and opinions more suited to some clever young man. . . . I instinctively...
Education
Elma Napier
In spite of the fact that her family did not value literature as much as games, and that her mother had specific ideas about what girls should read, EN
devoured every book she could get...
Education
Emily Brontë
Thereafter, Patrick Brontë
educated his remaining children at home, using standard educational texts including Thomas Salmon
's A New Geographical and Historical Grammar, a condensed version of Oliver Goldsmith
's History of England,...
Education
George Eliot
Her devotion to John Bunyan
's Pilgrim's Progress remained unchanged during this period. She also read heavyweight works of theology, Hannah More
's letters, and a life of William Wilberforce
. By late 1838, however...
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,
HSW
's family encouraged her in the regular pursuits of a young, middle-class Victorian woman. From her father she inherited an enthusiasm for poetry—she especially liked Shakespeare
, Coleridge
, and Whitman
—and she read...
Education
Catherine Carswell
In her unfinished autobiography, CC
remembers that while she grew up there were no novels in the house except Sir Walter Scott
's, and a small, fat, small-printed volume, bound in ornamental red and black...
Education
Pearl S. Buck
Mr Kung despised fiction and the Sydenstricker library contained only the supposedly factual Plutarch
's Lives and Foxe
's Book of Martyrs, but Pearl read fiction avidly in both Chinese and English, devouring Shakespeare