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.
Uglow, Jennifer S. Elizabeth Gaskell: A Habit of Stories. Faber and Faber.
311
Friends, Associates
Henry Peter, Baron Brougham
Brougham had a number of friends among women writers. He was at primary school in Edinburgh with Susan Ferrier
(who, however, declined to acknowledge him later, probably for political reasons). His political work brought him...
JW
visited Harriet Martineau
at her home, The Knoll, in Ambleside. They paid a call on Wordsworth
, whom Julia found conceited and disagreeable.
Wedgwood, Barbara, and Hensleigh Wedgwood. The Wedgwood Circle, 1730-1897: Four Generations of a Family and Their Friends. Studio Vista.
254
Wedgwood, Barbara, and Hensleigh Wedgwood. The Wedgwood Circle, 1730-1897: Four Generations of a Family and Their Friends. Studio Vista.
253-4
Friends, Associates
Elizabeth Charles
EC
, however, ascribes the formative moments in her intellectual development to other sources. She counts among her early influences and inspirations writers Harriet Martineau
and Anne Trelawny
, and naturalist and artist Colonel Hamilton Smith
Friends, Associates
George Eliot
In addition to his intellectual heterodoxy, Charles Bray was a sexual nonconformist. He had several illegitimate children, of whom he and his wife adopted at least one. GE
may or may not have known about...
Friends, Associates
Elizabeth Gaskell
She meanwhile sustained her usual energetic and gossipy flow of correspondence with a wide range of literary and personal connections. She got caught up in the speculation surrounding the split between Effie
and John Ruskin
Friends, Associates
Sophia Jex-Blake
After the riot, the women received support from several notable people, including Frances Power Cobbe
and Harriet Martineau
. Martineau supported SJB
into the future as well: she sent her a small monetary contribution aimed...
Friends, Associates
Anne Marsh
Before her marriage Anne Caldwell (later AM
) seems to have lived in close ties of friendship with the women of the Wedgwood and Darwin families, including Sarah
, wife of Josiah Wedgwood
. She...
Friends, Associates
George Eliot
At the beginning of February GE
had already been hoping that her friendship with Parkes (a dear, ardent, honest creature) would be close.
Ashton, Rosemary. George Eliot: A Life. Hamish Hamilton.
95
A couple of years later Parkes went against her...
CC
remained a close friend of her early passion Catherine Gore
.
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.
She was also acquainted with Mary Russell Mitford
, whom she described as priggy,
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.
and Harriet Martineau
Health
Augusta Ada Byron
Intermittently from 1840 onwards, AAB
was subject to what she termed no end of manias and whims.
Woolley, Benjamin. The Bride of Science: Romance, Reason and Byron’s Daughter. Macmillan.
218
Deciding to use her illness as a grounds for scientific exploration and inspired by Harriet Martineau
's...
Health
Florence Nightingale
People in England became convinced that FN
was critically ill in Crimea; Harriet Martineau
composed an obituary celebrating her life and achievements.
Poovey, Mary. Uneven Developments: The Ideological Work of Gender in Mid-Victorian England. University of Chicago Press.
164
Instructor
Julia Wedgwood
JW
was educated mainly at home, although she did attend Harriet Martineau
's Leeds school in 1847 for a few months.
Timeline
No timeline events available.
Texts
Comte, Auguste. The Positive Philosophy of Auguste Comte. Translator Martineau, Harriet, John Chapman, 1853.
Comte, Auguste. The Positive Philosophy of Auguste Comte. Translator Martineau, Harriet, Peter Eckler, 1893.
Martineau, Harriet. The Tendency of Strikes and Sticks to Produce Low Wages. J. H. Veitch, 1834.
Martineau, Harriet. Traditions of Palestine. Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green, 1830.
Martineau, Harriet. Weal and Woe in Garveloch. Charles Fox, 1832.
Martineau, Harriet. Women, Emancipation and Literature: The Papers of Harriet Martineau 1802-1876. Adam Matthew, 1991.