Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Jane Welsh Carlyle
-
Standard Name: Carlyle, Jane Welsh
Birth Name: Jane Baillie Welsh
Married Name: Jane Baillie Carlyle
Used Form: Jane Welsh
JWC
is well known for her prodigious letters, none of which were published during her lifetime.
Christianson, Aileen. “Jane Welsh Carlyle’s Private Writing Career”. A History of Scottish Women’s Writing, edited by Douglas Gifford and Dorothy McMillan, Edinburgh University Press, pp. 232-45.
232
Her witty epistles, which Thomas Carlyle praised for pick[ing] up every diamond-spark, out of the common floor-dust,
Carlyle, Thomas, and Jane Welsh Carlyle. “Introduction”. The Collected Letters of Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle, edited by Charles Richard Sanders, Duke University Press.
1: x
are rooted in her domestic and social activities and as a collection provide a social history of nineteenth-century London.
Clarke, Norma. Ambitious Heights. Routledge.
146
Bloom, Abigail Burnham, editor. Nineteenth-Century British Women Writers. Greenwood Press.
105
Jane also wrote a personal journal, a few poems, short stories, and dialogues which have been posthumously published. With the rise of feminist and epistolary criticism, JWC
's work has been the subject of increased critical attention from the late twentieth century onwards.
On her first return from abroad to set up house with Lewes, GE
had to undertake damage control in managing her friendships. She was anxious about the probable reaction of old friends like the Brays...
Literary responses
George Eliot
This work drew her first published review in the Times, which was highly appreciative and noted that the fictions were now claimed by Mr. George Eliot—a name unknown to us.
Carroll, David, editor. George Eliot: The Critical Heritage. Barnes and Noble.
61
The Saturday Review...
Friends, Associates
Lucie Duff Gordon
Friends of LDG
's parents included political radicals and commentators of the day, such as Bentham
, theCarlyles
, James Mill
, Macaulay
, and Sydney Smith
. Her own childhood friends included her...
Friends, Associates
Catherine Crowe
CC
had already become a friend of Sydney Smith
and his family. In Edinburgh she became friendly with members of various intellectual circles, including astronomer John Pringle Nichol
, chemist Samuel Brown
, artist David Scott
Theme or Topic Treated in Text
Camilla Crosland
Since she was well-connected in London literary circles, she was able to include in her memoir recollections of time spent working with the annuals and of literary figures such as Grace Aguilar
, Lady Blessington
In this essay she notes the present fashion for biography and laments that it was not always so. Mrs. William Shakespeare
's sufferings may, in her different sphere, have equalled Mrs. Carlyle
's, and she...
Family and Intimate relationships
Thomas Carlyle
In 1826 he married Jane Welsh
. They were introduced in 1821 by Edward Irving
, who was both her tutor and his friend. Despite her mother's disapproval, they began a courtship. Their marriage produced no children.
Residence
Thomas Carlyle
Following their marriage, the CarlyleJane Welsh Carlyle
s first settled in Edinburgh, then in 1828 moved to a farm in Craigenputtoch, Dumfriesshire where they could live cheaply.
Residence
Thomas Carlyle
In 1834, the CarlyleJane Welsh Carlyle
s moved from Scotland to London, where they lived at 5 Cheyne Row, Chelsea.
In April 1866, Jane Carlyle
died during a coach ride in Hyde Park. TC
was healing a sprained ankle in Edinburgh and could not immediately return. Geraldine Jewsbury
was called on to identify the...
The marriage of CB
's mother, then Clara Patten
, to David Black in 1849 was made against her father's wishes. The marriage effectively ended Clara's participation in intellectual and artistic circles, which had included...
