Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Sarah Grand
-
Standard Name: Grand, Sarah
Birth Name: Frances Elizabeth Bellenden Clarke
Married Name: Frances Elizabeth Bellenden McFall
Indexed Name: Frances E. McFall
Pseudonym: Sarah Grand
Nickname: Madame Grand
SG
is known as a late nineteenth-century women's rights campaigner and social reformer. She claimed to have coined the term New Woman in her articleThe New Aspect of the Woman Question, which appeared in the North American Review in March 1894. Her novelIdeala, 1888, was an early example of the New Woman novels which became increasingly popular, if controversial, among both female and male writers at the turn of the century. Her nine novels and three collections of short stories tend toward the didactic; she explicitly acknowledged her belief in writing as instruction rather than as art.
Bonnell, Marilyn. “Sarah Grand and the Critical Establishment: Art for [Wo]man’s Sake”. Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature, Vol.
14
, No. 1, 1 Mar.–31 May 1995, pp. 123-48.
133
She also published a pamphlet on male-female relationships, as well as many articles and lectures on gender issues. She never tried to publish the poetry that she wrote for pleasure.
This anthology also features Sarah Grand
's 1898 story When the Door Opened, which seems to echo EDA
's Irremediable.
Clarke, John Stock. Ella D’Arcy. 21 Mar. 2019.
Education
Kate Parry Frye
She also educated herself through reading, and while still in her teens was recording her opinion of New Woman novels: Sarah Grand
's The Heavenly Twins, 1893, and Emma Frances Brooke
's A Superfluous...
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...
At Tunbridge WellsKT
became a friend of writer and women's rights activist Sarah Grand
(whose real name was Frances Elizabeth Bellenden (Clarke) McFall
).
The title refers to an ancient ring of standing stones which features in the novel, a place of ritual and supposedly of human sacrifice, probably based on the Stones of Cairnholy not far from the...
Literary responses
George Egerton
GE
tended not to read reviews of her works: she claimed to have a kind of contempt for English criticisms.
qtd. in
Egerton, George. A Leaf from the Yellow Book. Editor White, Terence de Vere, Richards Press, 1958.
32
She also abhorred the idea of giving interviews or having her picture printed in...
Literary responses
Kathleen Caffyn
Her contemporary Hugh Stutfield
grouped KC
together with Sarah Grand
and Grant Allen
as members of the purity school. Gail Cunningham notes that these authors were seen to valorize a feminine ideal and sphere...
Occupation
Constance Smedley
Since the Langham Place Group
had provided a social space for women in 1860, several organizations had already challenged the flourishing institution of men's clubs. The Lyceum Club
came on the scene at a time...
Boll, Theophilus E. M. Miss May Sinclair: Novelist: A Biographical and Critical Introduction. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1973.
96
Sinclair, however, could not approve the increasingly...
Reception
Ella D'Arcy
EDA
's slim output has made it easier for posterity to ignore her. But both Arnold Bennett
and Ford Madox Ford
thought highly of her.
Fisher, Benjamin Franklin. “Ella D’Arcy: A Commentary with a Primary and Annotated Secondary Bibliography”. English Literature in Transition, 1880-1920, Vol.
35
, No. 2, 1992, pp. 179-11.
204
Mix, Katherine Lyon. A Study in Yellow: The Yellow Book and Its Contributors. Greenwood Press, 1969.
Where literary historian John Sutherland has called MCone of the most aggressive of the New Woman novelists,
qtd. in
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Ann Heilmann
(who has led the scholarly rediscovery of the story of Caird's life) has argued that...
Textual Features
Kathleen Caffyn
This three-volume narrative opens on the childhood of Gwen and Dacre Waring, a sister and brother who grow up in a wealthy, intellectual and agnostic family. Their parents' unorthodox values do not, however, extend to...
Timeline
After March 1894: During this decade tailor-made costumes gave...
Building item
After March 1894
During this decade tailor-made costumes gave a look of efficiency to the New Woman—a phrase whose popularity dated from Sarah Grand
's use of it this month.
Adburgham, Alison. Shops and Shopping 1800-1914: Where, and in What Manner the Well-Dressed Englishwoman Bought Her Clothes. Allen and Unwin, 1964.
227
June 1908: The Women Writers' Suffrage League was established...
Whitelaw, Lis. The Life and Rebellious Times of Cicely Hamilton. Women’s Press, 1990.
68-74
Liggins, Emma. “The ’Sordid Story’ of an Unwanted Child: Militancy, Motherhood, and Abortion in Elizabeth Robins’s Votes for Women and Way Stations”. Women’s Writing, Vol.
25
, No. 3, Aug. 2018, pp. 347-61.
349
10 December 1908: The inaugural meeting of the Actresses' Franchise...