Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Harriet Martineau
-
Standard Name: Martineau, Harriet
Birth Name: Harriet Martineau
Pseudonym: Discipulus
Pseudonym: A Lady
Pseudonym: H. M.
Pseudonym: From the Mountain
Pseudonym: An Invalid
Pseudonym: An Englishwoman
HM
began her career as a professional writer, which spanned more than four decades in the mid nineteenth century, with writing from a Unitarian perspective on religious matters. She made her name with her multi-volume series (initially twenty-five volumes, followed by further series) of narrative expositions of political economy. One of the founders of sociology, who believed that social affairs proceed according to great general laws, no less than natural phenomena,
Martineau, Harriet, and Gaby Weiner. Harriet Martineau’s Autobiography. Virago.
2: 245
she produced several major contributions to this emerging field. She wrote broadly in periodicals and regularly for a newspaper on social and political issues, and produced three books of observations emerging from her foreign travels. Although her two three-volume novels were not particularly successful, her work had a great impact on later Victorian fiction. She also wrote history, biography, and household manuals. Her advocacy of mesmerism and her atheism made some of her later writings controversial. In her eminently readable autobiography and other writings she presents a cogent analysis of conditions shaping the lives of Victorian women. Although she became hugely influential—one of the most prominent women writers of her day—HM
eschewed notions of genius. Her crucial contribution to Victorian feminist thought has frequently been overlooked.
Chapman, Maria Weston, and Harriet Martineau. “Memorials of Harriet Martineau”. Harriet Martineau’s Autobiography, James R. Osgood, pp. 2: 131 - 596.
Before her marriage CN
had formed a friendship with the Irish poet Tom Moore
, once a crony of her famous grandfather; this friendship endured into her middle age. It was also as Richard Brinsley...
Lightbown, Ronald W., and Eliza Meteyard. “Introduction”. The Life of Josiah Wedgwood, Cornmarket Press.
The difficulties of social life for unattached women are visible in her regret and anxiety over...
Friends, Associates
Sarah Flower Adams
As her father
established himself socially and politically within the Dalston community, she became involved in London's literary and intellectual circles. Among those she met, William James Linton
, John Stuart Mill
, and...
HT
's husband introduced her to the UnitarianMonthly Repository circle which included Harriet Martineau
, Eliza
and Sarah Flower
, and the Rev. William Fox
.
Rose, Phyllis. Parallel Lives: Five Victorian Marriages. Alfred A. Knopf.
103
Blain, Virginia et al., editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford.
BRP
knew personally and corresponded with many of the Victorian intelligentsia. In addition to her Langham Place associates already mentioned, her literary friends and acquaintances included Matilda Hays
, Harriet Martineau
, Anthony Trollope
,...
Friends, Associates
Jessie Boucherett
Partly through her membership of the Kensington Society
(a social and political discussion group of about fifty women inaugurated in 1865), JB
broadened her acquaintance with significant members of the feminist movement, including Frances Power Cobbe
Blain, Virginia et al., editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford.
Marshall, Dorothy. Fanny Kemble. Weidenfeld and Nicholson.
Rose, Phyllis. Parallel Lives: Five Victorian Marriages. Alfred A. Knopf.
103, 105, 116
Friends, Associates
Eliza Fletcher
Hamilton, herself a conservative, set about de-demonizing EF
's political reputation. She had good success in persuading her friends that Mrs Fletcher was not the ferocious Democrat she had been represented, and that she neither...
Friends, Associates
Eliza Fletcher
Joanna Baillie
(a well qualified judge) thought few people have so many friends as EF
, and that they all warmly esteemed as well as loving her.
Baillie, Joanna. The Collected Letters of Joanna Baillie. Editor Slagle, Judith Bailey, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.
2: 699
At first meeting, Fletcher did not...
Friends, Associates
Mary Russell Mitford
She knew most of the literary women of her day, including Felicia Hemans
(who wrote to ask her for an autograph),
L’Estrange, Alfred Guy Kingham, editor. The Friendships of Mary Russell Mitford as Recorded in Letters from Her Literary Correspondents. Hurst and Blackett.
Mitford, Mary Russell. The Life of Mary Russell Mitford: Told by Herself in Letters To Her Friends. Editor L’Estrange, Alfred Guy Kingham, Harper and Brothers.
2: 213
Friends, Associates
Charlotte Brontë
CB
saw a resemblance between Emily and both Gaskell and Harriet Martineau
, to whom she also had her publishers send a copy of Shirley.
Barker, Juliet. The Brontës. St Martin’s Press.
615
Gaskell, Elizabeth. The Life of Charlotte Brontë. Editor Shelston, Alan, Penguin.
392
Timeline
April 1862: The Senate of the University of London voted...
Building item
April 1862
The Senate of the University of London voted against allowing women into their medical degree programme.
1864: Famous Girls who have become Illustrious...
Writing climate item
1864
Famous Girls who have become Illustrious Women: Forming Models for Imitation by the Young Women of England, a very popular book of biographical sketches by John M. Darton
, was published.
October 1864: The Working Women's College opened in Queen...
31 December 1869: The Daily News published the Ladies' Protest,...
Building item
31 December 1869
The Daily News published the Ladies' Protest, a document signed by 124 women which outlined their arguments for the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts.
October 1870: Sir Henry Storks, a supporter of the Contagious...
National or international item
October 1870
Sir Henry Storks
, a supporter of the Contagious Diseases Acts, was defeated in his second by-election of the year, this time in Colchester.
April 1879: James Murray—editor since 1 March of what...
Writing climate item
April 1879
James Murray
—editor since 1 March of what was to become the Oxford English Dictionary—issued an Appeal for readers to supply illustrative quotations.
1886: The working-class, popular, evangelical writer...
Women writers item
1886
The working-class, popular, evangelical writer Marianne Farningham
(born Mary Ann Hearne or Hearn
) published as Eva Hope a book called Queens of Literature of the Victorian Era which reveals unexpected feminist sympathies.
1886: Eva Hope's Queens of Literature of the Victorian...
Martineau, Harriet. Health, Husbandry and Handicraft. Bradbury and Evans, 1861.
Martineau, Harriet. Homes Abroad. Charles Fox, 1832.
Martineau, Harriet. Household Education. Edward Moxon, 1849.
Martineau, Harriet, and Michael R. Hill. How to Observe Morals and Manners. Transaction Publishers, 1995.
Martineau, Harriet. How to Observe. Morals and Manners. Charles Knight, 1838.
Martineau, Harriet. Illustrations of Political Economy. Charles Fox, 1834.
Martineau, Harriet. Illustrations of Political Economy: Selected Tales. Editor Logan, Deborah Anna, Broadview, 2004.
Martineau, Harriet. Illustrations of Taxation. Charles Fox, 1834.
Martineau, Harriet. “Introduction and Editorial Materials”. Selected Letters, edited by Valerie Sanders, Clarendon Press, 1990, pp. vii - xxxiii, 235.
Frawley, Maria H., and Harriet Martineau. “Introduction and Editorial Materials”. Life in the Sick-Room, Broadview Press, 2003, pp. 11 - 31, 161.
Logan, Deborah Anna, and Harriet Martineau. “Introduction and Editorial Materials”. Illustrations of Political Economy, Broadview, 2004, p. various pages.
Martineau, Harriet. Ireland. Charles Fox, 1832.
Martineau, Harriet. Letters from Ireland. John Chapman, 1852.
Martineau, Harriet. Letters on Mesmerism. Edward Moxon, 1845.
Atkinson, Henry George, and Harriet Martineau. Letters on the Laws of Man’s Nature and Development. John Chapman, 1851.
Martineau, Harriet. Life in the Sick-Room. Edward Moxon, 1844.
Martineau, Harriet. Life in the Sick-Room. Editor Frawley, Maria H., Broadview, 2003.
Martineau, Harriet. Life in the Wilds. Charles Fox, 1832.