Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Ouida
-
Standard Name: Ouida
Birth Name: Marie Louise Ramé
Self-constructed Name: Louise de la Ramée
Pseudonym: Ouida
During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Ouida
published 44 volumes of fiction, primarily novels, but also novellas and short stories for both children and adults. Often publishing more than one book a year, she was also a prolific essayist who wrote on matters of politics and literature. Her first, three-decker novels, from the 1860s, often centred on the adventures of military men and were characterized as sensation novels. After she moved to Italy in the early 1870s, she wrote a number of novels concerned with the conditions of the government and population (especially the poor) of that country.
The heroine (played by Thea Holme
) is an inexperienced, romantic, good-natured shop-girl living in the London suburbs, engaged to a good but prosaic man and suffering the harrassment and anxiety of poverty: she has...
Education
Elaine Feinstein
Her MA followed automatically three years after her Cambridge BA. She achieved her Part I bar finals in London, but dropped the idea of practising law when she understood how much money she would...
Education
John Strange Winter
After this she completed her education at home. Although even in this context she says, I was not well educated, for I never would learn,
Bainton, George, editor. The Art of Authorship. J. Clarke, 1890.
24
she also described herself as having always been from...
Education
Stella Gibbons
SG
learned to read fairly late, but then read voraciously. The glowing Eastern landscapes and brilliant figures
qtd. in
Oliver, Reggie. Out of the Woodshed: A Portrait of Stella Gibbons. Bloomsbury, 1998.
20
of Disraeli
's Alroy and Thomas Moore
's Lalla Rookh made a particular impression. She also developed...
Education
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Perhaps most important for Ella, however, was her mother
's influence and guidance, and the reading of every magazine she could lay her hands on, together with works by Ouida
, Mary J. Holmes
...
Education
Dorothy Whipple
As a small child DW
loved the Bible. She had a child's bible with illustrations, and was fascinated by stories of Christ's miracles (though a blind man took it badly when she proposed spitting...
Family and Intimate relationships
Ella Hepworth Dixon
EHD
's father, a Yorkshireman named William Hepworth Dixon
, was the editor of the Athenæum from 1853 to 1869 and wrote several novels. He was lionized by London society after the publication of...
In London JFLW
associated with writers such as Marie Corelli
, Ouida
, and Violet Hunt
. Oscar
, an emerging celebrity, introduced his mother to the city's artistic circle.
Intertextuality and Influence
Elizabeth Taylor
Paul Bailey opens his introduction by quoting extensively from a scene in Ethel M. Dell
's The Top of the World which features a Proud Beauty and a Faithful Retainer. He also links Angel with...
Intertextuality and Influence
Berta Ruck
BR
relates with gusto a story about the composition of a novel with a particularly implausible romance story-line. Wishing she could defy verisimilitude as confidently as Ouida
(who could get away with murder and murdered...
Intertextuality and Influence
Dorothy Richardson
In this book Richardson's heroine Miriam, now eighteen years old, has returned from Germany and is a resident teacher at Wordsworth House, a school in fictional Banbury Park, North London, run by the Perne...
Intertextuality and Influence
Stella Gibbons
SG
published Ticky, a fantasy novel inspired by Ouida
.
Oliver, Reggie. Out of the Woodshed: A Portrait of Stella Gibbons. Bloomsbury, 1998.
While in reminiscence JSW
was uncertain as to the title of this early composition, she acknowledged the influence on it of Ouida
and Whyte Melville
. She sent the story to the journal Wedding Bells...
Intertextuality and Influence
John Oliver Hobbes
Pearl Richards (later JOH
) read widely as a child and adolescent, and her parents' liberal views (and considerable fortune) meant that she could pursue her tastes in both the lending libraries and the less...
Timeline
4 November 1836: Richard Bentley (1794-1871) signed an agreement...
Writing climate item
4 November 1836
Richard Bentley
(1794-1871) signed an agreement with Dickens
to edit his new monthly periodical, Bentley's Miscellany.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
under Richard Bentley, 1794-1871
Sutherland, John, b. 1938. The Stanford Companion to Victorian Fiction. Stanford University Press, 1989.
Drabble, Margaret, editor. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 5th ed., Oxford University Press, 1985.
December 1868: With sales of the once-popular Bentley's...
Writing climate item
December 1868
With sales of the once-popular Bentley's Miscellany at an all-time low, the owner, Richard Bentley
, ended its publication.
Houghton, Walter E., and Jean Harris Slingerland, editors. The Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals 1824-1900. University of Toronto Press, 1966–1989, 5 vols.
4: 12-13, 113
17 November 1958: The sale began at Sotheby's of the collection...
Writing climate item
17 November 1958
The sale began at Sotheby's
of the collection of first editions built up by the bibliographer Michael Sadleir
, who had recently died.
“The Times Digital Archive 1785-2007”. Thompson Gale: The Times Digital Archive.
(18 November 1958): 12
Texts
Ouida, and Enrico Mazzanti. A Dog of Flanders. Chapman and Hall, 1872.
Ouida,. A Dog of Flanders. L. C. Page.
Ouida,. A Village Commune. Chatto and Windus, 1881, 2 vols.
Ouida,. A Village Commune. New edition, Chatto and Windus, 1882.
Ouida,. Bimbi. Chatto and Windus, 1882.
Ouida,. Bimbi. J. B. Lippincott, 1907.
Ouida,. Cecil Castlemaine’s Gage. Chapman and Hall, 1867.
Ouida,. Cecil Castlemaine’s Gage. Reprint of 1877 edition, Books for Libraries Press, 1970.
Ouida,. Chandos. Chapman and Hall, 1866, 3 vols.
Ouida,. Critical Studies. T. Fisher Unwin, 1900.
Ouida,. Folle-Farine. Chapman and Hall, 1871, 3 vols.
Ouida,. Held in Bondage. Tinsley, 1863, 3 vols.
Ouida,. Helianthus. Macmillan, 1908.
Ouida,. Idalia. Chapman and Hall, 1867, 3 vols.
Ouida,. Moths. Chatto and Windus, 1880, 3 vols.
Ouida,. Moths. New edition, Chatto and Windus, 1895.
Ouida,. Pascarèl. Chapman and Hall, 1873, 3 vols.
Ouida,. Strathmore. Chapman and Hall, 1865, 3 vols.
Ouida,. The Massarenes. Sampson Low, 1897.
Ouida,. The New Priesthood. E. W. Allen, 1893.
Ouida,. Two Little Wooden Shoes. Chapman and Hall, 1874.
Ouida,. Under Two Flags. Chapman and Hall, 1867, 3 vols.
Ouida, and Olivia Manning. Under Two Flags. Anthony Blond, 1967.