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.
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
Education
Frances Power Cobbe
Her continuing studies, particularly of theology, benefitted from access to Archbishop Marsh's Library
in Dublin (though it was ostensibly open only to gentlemen and graduates). Her reading at this period may have included Marian Evans, later George Eliot
As a book they were positively received by the Saturday Review, whose reviewer expressed surprise to find that this stern champion of her sex is so pleasant, so intelligent, and so natural a companion...
AC
's work strongly influenced John Stuart Mill
, George Henry Lewes
, George Eliot
, and especially Harriet Martineau
, who produced an English translation and abridgement of the philosopher's work. AC
was concerned...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text
Eliza Cook
Eliza Cook's Journal takes the form of discrete essays by EC
and others; poems, too, were included. The language is informal and conversational, though a heavy use of quotation-marks for words or phrases deemed in...
politics
Caroline Frances Cornwallis
The Eclectic Magazine once described her brand of feminism as less flighty than that of Frances Wright
and less senselessly radical than that of Harriet Martineau
(thus revealing a somewhat odd opinion of those two...
Intertextuality and Influence
Georgiana Craik
Honor proves herself a valuable, spirited member of the Riverston household, whose narration reflects her intolerance of false social niceties. She views storms as kindred spirits, saying that fierce, disturbed nature had voices for me...
Friends, Associates
Catherine Crowe
CC
had already become a friend of Sydney Smith
and his family. In Edinburgh she became friendly with members of various intellectual circles, including astronomer John Pringle Nichol
, chemist Samuel Brown
, artist David Scott
Literary responses
Mary Delany
Harriet Martineau
nevertheless fastened with delight on the primary material here. She found the first three volumes an enormous treat,—perhaps the greatest in the book way for these seven years, and counted on the second...
Textual Production
Frances Isabella Duberly
Selina was to have a free hand about printing this letter in as many papers as she liked, but preferably including the Daily News (the paper of Charles Dickens
and Harriet Martineau
) or the Herald.
Friends, Associates
Lucie Duff Gordon
Guests at the Regent's Park home included her mother's second cousin Harriet Martineau
,
Her mother's grandmother and Martineau's grandmother were sisters.
Aware now that her letters might reach published form, LDG
reflects in her writing more consciousness of the way she wanted to represent herself and her surroundings. Having read her second cousin Harriet Martineau
's...
Literary responses
Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, first Baron Lytton
He praised Grace Aguilar
's Exposition of Zanoni, which he mentioned in the introduction to a new edition. He claimed that she and Harriet Martineau
had provided the most valuable criticism of the work.
Drabble, Margaret, editor. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. Oxford University Press.
Crosland, Camilla. Landmarks of a Literary Life, 1820-1892. Charles Scribner’s Sons.
176
The Athenaeum Index of Reviews and Reviewers: 1830-1870. http://replay.web.archive.org/20070714065452/http://www.soi.city.ac.uk/~asp/v2/home.html.
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.