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 article The New Aspect of the Woman Question, which appeared in the North American Review in March 1894. Her novel Ideala, 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, 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.
Two works by MBE
appeared posthumously: the translated anthology French Fireside Poetry, edited by Bernard Miall
, and Mid-Victorian Memories, with a biographical sketch by Sarah Grand
.
British Library Catalogue. http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?dscnt=0&tab=local_tab&dstmp=1489778087340&vid=BLVU1&mode=Basic&fromLo.
Cox, Michael, editor. The Oxford Chronology of English Literature. Oxford University Press.
1: 617
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...
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...
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...
Reception
Mona Caird
Where literary historian John Sutherland has called MCone of the most aggressive of the New Woman novelists,
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 Production
Christabel Coleridge
The title of CC
's little essay volume The Daughters Who Have Not Revolted alludes both to the early stages of the New Woman debate and specifically to Sarah Grand
's The Revolt of the...
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.
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, pp. 179-11.
204
Mix, Katherine Lyon. A Study in Yellow: <span data-tei-ns-tag="tei_title" data-tei-title-lvl="j">The Yellow Book</span> and Its Contributors. Greenwood Press.
GE
tended not to read reviews of her works: she claimed to have a kind of contempt for English criticisms.
Egerton, George. A Leaf from the Yellow Book. Editor White, Terence de Vere, Richards Press.
32
She also abhorred the idea of giving interviews or having her picture printed in...
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...
Textual Production
Eliza Lynn Linton
Andrea L. Broomfield suggests that Sarah Grand
's Bawling Brotherhood may be a direct response to ELL
's Shrieking Sisterhood.
Broomfield, Andrea. “Much More Than an Antifeminist: Eliza Lynn Linton’s Contribution to the Rise of Victorian Popular Journalism”. Victorian Literature and Culture, Vol.
29
, No. 2, pp. 267-83.
280
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...
Boll, Theophilus E. M. Miss May Sinclair: Novelist: A Biographical and Critical Introduction. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.
96
Sinclair, however, could not approve the increasingly...
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.
June 1908: The Women Writers' Suffrage League was established...