Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Anna Maria Hall
-
Standard Name: Hall, Anna Maria
Birth Name: Anna Maria Fielding
Married Name: Anna Maria Hall
Used Form: Mrs Samuel Carter Hall
Used Form: Mrs S. C. Hall
AMH
was an extremely prolific writer whose literary career spanned the pre- and later Victorian periods. She wrote many stories, nine novels, some children's literature, three plays, a pamphlet, and a travel book. She also worked as an editor and wrote several pieces in support of the temperance movement. Her fiction participated in mid-century debates over the plight of governesses and the position of women generally. Much of her work served to sustain stereotypes of Irish national character.
The full title reads Fables and other Pieces in Verse . . . With some account of the author, in letters to Robert Southey
Esq. . . . by Mrs. Bray. The dedicatory poem...
Friends, Associates
Dinah Mulock Craik
Dinah Mulock met several notable literary figures, such as the dramatists George
and Maria Lovell
, poet Eliza Leslie
, and Mr
and Mrs Samuel Carter Hall
. At parties given by Anna Maria Hall...
Occupation
Camilla Crosland
She worked a number of jobs that included teaching (she was a governess who attended her pupils by the day and did not live in), jewelry-making, and needlework. In the 1840s she was making about...
Friends, Associates
Mary Anne Duffus Hardy
MADH
moved in London society all her life and had many literary friends and acquaintances. Helen Black
mentions her shelves of autograph copies of her friends' books, particularly those by S. C. Hall
and Anna Maria Hall
Anthologization
Barbara Hofland
BH
seems to have remained saleable for a long time, since The Gift of Friendship . . . with contributions by . . . Mrs. Hofland appeared as late as 1877. Others included were Mary Howitt
Friends, Associates
Mary Howitt
Those they met there included the literary couples Samuel
and Anna Hall
, and Alaric
and Zillah Watts
(the latter couple's eldest son eventually married the Howitts' elder daughter, Anna Mary.)
Woodring, Carl Ray. Victorian Samplers: William and Mary Howitt. University of Kansas Press.
25-6
Once they were...
Textual Features
Elizabeth Jenkins
Daniel Dunglas Home was, said a reviewer of EJ
's book, the most successful of all the Victorian mediums. Among his many supporters were Anna Maria
and Samuel Carter Hall
.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
GJ
entered the social scene of the capital with several connections already made. Her London friends included members of the Kingsley and Rossetti families, feminist reformer Frances Power Cobbe
, author John Ruskin
, Samuel Carter
Publishing
Geraldine Jewsbury
GJ
's ambition was to be a journalist, but ill health prevented her from devoting her life to the profession.
Howe, Susanne. Geraldine Jewsbury: Her Life and Errors. George Allen and Unwin.
66
Sage, Lorna, editor. The Cambridge Guide to Women’s Writing in English. Cambridge University Press.
351
Nevertheless, she published in several leading journals including Household Words, Lloyd's Weekly...
Literary responses
Geraldine Jewsbury
Many Victorian readers found Zoe shocking, and GJ
's publisher
feared negative repercussions for printing it. Anna Maria Hall
complained that it was a most dangerous book, shaking the foundations of all sound doctrine.
Howe, Susanne. Geraldine Jewsbury: Her Life and Errors. George Allen and Unwin.
Early in 1831 she had refused Fletcher
's first proposal. Despite her father
's strong opposition,
Fryckstedt, Monica Correa. “The Hidden Rill: The Life and Career of Maria Jane Jewsbury, II”. Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, Vol.
67
, No. 1, The Library, pp. 450-73.
467
she finally consented when Fletcher proposed again in March.
Clarke, Norma. Ambitious Heights. Routledge.
156
Espinasse, Francis, and Francis Espinasse. “Maria Jane Jewsbury”. Lancashire Worthies: Second Series, Simpkin, Marshall; John Heywood, pp. 323-39.
330
Anna Maria Hall
tried her best to...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text
Maria Jane Jewsbury
MJJ
used the Athenæum to express her opinions on women's writing. A review of Anna Maria Hall
's Sketches of Irish Character criticizes the author's erroneous ambition
Athenæum. J. Lection.
182 (1831): 262
in attempting to portray villains...
Friends, Associates
L. E. L.
LEL
's friends Anna Maria Hall
, Katherine Thomson
, and Rosina Bulwer Lytton
defended her reputation against scandal. However, around the time of this broken engagement, Lytton began to credit her husband's account of...
Friends, Associates
Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington
Anna Maria Hall
, who called frequently, said that whatever might be true as to the scandal, Marguerite Blessington never lost an opportunity of doing a gracious act, or saying a gracious word.
Molloy, Joseph Fitzgerald. The Most Gorgeous Lady Blessington. Downey.
403
Blessington...
Timeline
No timeline events available.
Texts
Hall, Anna Maria. The Governess. W. and R. Chambers, 1858.
Hall, Anna Maria, editor. The Juvenile Forget-Me-Not. N. Hailes, F. Westley and A.H. Davis, R. Jennings.
Hall, Anna Maria. The Outlaw. R. Bentley, 1835.
Hall, Anna Maria. The Whiteboy. Chapman and Hall, 1845.