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.
The Athenæum's review by Lena Eden
called East Lynneone of the best novels published for a season.
Athenæum. J. Lection.
1772 (1861): 473
The novel was well reviewed in the Daily News and Saturday Review as...
Literary responses
Jane Williams
A short review in the Athenæum remarked that the idea of the book is good and droll but that it is carried too far—very much too far. Referring to Harriet Martineau
's theories of population...
Friends, Associates
Julia Wedgwood
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
Reception
Julia Wedgwood
Harriet Martineau
replied to the eight-year-old JW
's letter; Julia had asked her mother
's permission to write to her friend to tell Martineau how much she enjoyed her stories.
Wedgwood, Barbara, and Hensleigh Wedgwood. The Wedgwood Circle, 1730-1897: Four Generations of a Family and Their Friends. Studio Vista.
237, 366n21
Cultural formation
Julia Wedgwood
JW
was born into that section of the English professional class which functioned as an intellectual and cultural elite. She was connected through her family with other Victorians strongly committed to spiritual and moral inquiry...
Instructor
Julia Wedgwood
JW
was educated mainly at home, although she did attend Harriet Martineau
's Leeds school in 1847 for a few months.
Textual Production
Rosamund Marriott Watson
RMW
was by this time establishing a name for herself as an poet. In 1890 Elizabeth A. Sharp
included three of her poems in Women Poets of the Victorian Era. The anthology also features...
Family and Intimate relationships
Mary Augusta Ward
MAW
's eldest child, Dorothy
, was born; Harriet Martineau
sent the baby a cot-blanket she had made.
Ward, Mary Augusta. A Writer’s Recollections. Harper and Brothers.
298
Family and Intimate relationships
Mary Augusta Ward
From the time of her arrival in England, a major influence on the young Mary Arnold (later MAW
) was her aunt and godmother Jane Arnold
or Aunt K., a cultivated woman and friend...
Friends, Associates
Linda Villari
LV
and her husband were both friends of Vernon Lee
, accepting her hospitality and moving in the same circles.
Gunn, Peter. Vernon Lee: Violet Paget, 1856-1935. Oxford University Press.
96
Lee corresponded with LV
from the late 1870s to the early 1880s and discussed...
Intertextuality and Influence
Frances Trollope
FT
's The Life and Adventures of Michael Armstrong, the Factory Boy, possibly the first industrial novel, appeared with a date of 1840.
Texts that anticipate its interest in industrial relations include Harriet Martineau
Theme or Topic Treated in Text
Flora Tristan
One chapter, entitled English Women, criticizes British social systems, and details the consequences women suffer because of the indissolubility of marriage.
Tristan, Flora. Flora Tristan’s London Journal, 1840. Translators Palmer, Dennis and Giselle Pincetl, Charles River Books.
CET
published Mesmerism: A Letter to Miss Martineau (whose letters on this topic in the Athenæum had begun to appear on 23 November).
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.
Khorana, Meena, and Judith Gero John, editors. Dictionary of Literary Biography 163. Gale Research.
309
Textual Production
Charlotte Elizabeth Tonna
Responding here to Martineau
's public interest in the healing powers of mesmerism, CET
writes with the purpose of saving Martineau's soul from this Satanic power.
Tonna, Charlotte Elizabeth. Mesmerism. W. S. Martien.
7
She sums up her position on Mesmerism: by...
Friends, Associates
Harriet Taylor
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.
Timeline
February 1778: Franz Anton Mesmer, inventor of animal magnetism,...
Building item
February 1778
Franz Anton Mesmer
, inventor of animal magnetism, arrived in Paris to promote his theory.
22 August 1791: Thousands of blacks rebelled in Hispaniola:...
National or international item
22 August 1791
Thousands of blacks rebelled in Hispaniola: in the French-speaking part of the island (now called Haiti while the other part is called the Dominican Republic). This (also known as Sainte-Domingue or Santo Domingo)...
January 1806: The Monthly Repository, a Dissenting magazine,...
Writing climate item
January 1806
The Monthly Repository, a Dissenting magazine, began publication in London, edited by Robert Aspland
.
1830-42: Auguste Comte published Cours de philosophie...
Writing climate item
1830-42
Auguste Comte
published Cours de philosophie positive in six volumes.
January 1833: The first issues appeared of two Irish monthly...
Writing climate item
January 1833
The first issues appeared of two Irish monthly periodicals: the successful Dublin University Magazine and the short-lived Dublin University Review, and Quarterly Magazine.
1 August 1834: The Slavery Abolition Act or Emancipation...
National or international item
1 August 1834
The Slavery Abolition Act or Emancipation Bill came into effect in the British Empire.
6 July 1839: In A Diary in America, Frederick Marryat...
Writing climate item
6 July 1839
In A Diary in America, Frederick Marryat
promoted the stereotype that middle-class Americans adhered to a more strict paradigm of prudishness than their British counterparts, and apparently gave rise to the myth that Victorians...
3 May 1841: The London Library, established by Thomas...
By 6 November 1852: William Makepeace Thackeray published his...
Writing climate item
By 6 November 1852
William Makepeace Thackeray
published his historical novel, set at the time of the Jacobite uprising, The History of Henry Esmond, Esq., A Colonel in the Service of Her Majesty Queen Anne.
1853: The Mémoires du Général Toussaint L'Ouverture,...
Writing climate item
1853
The Mémoires du Général Toussaint L'Ouverture, the black leader who emerged from the rebellion in St Dominique (now Haiti), were published in Paris.
December 1855: Barbara Leigh Smith, later Bodichon, founded...
14 March 1856: A petition for Reform of the Married Women's...
National or international item
14 March 1856
A petitionfor Reform of the Married Women's Property Law, organized by the Married Women's Property Committee
and signed by many prominent women, was presented to both Houses of Parliament.
2 May 1857: A grand dome designed by Panizzi was opened...
Building item
2 May 1857
A grand dome designed by Panizzi
was opened in what had been the central courtyard of the British Museum
.
Texts
Martineau, Harriet. A Manchester Strike. Charles Fox, 1832.
Martineau, Harriet. Addresses, With Prayers and Original Hymns. 1826.
Martineau, Harriet, and Vera Wheatley. “Appendix A: Harriet Martineau’s review of <span data-tei-ns-tag="tei_title" data-tei-title-lvl=‘m’>Villette</span>”;. The Life and Work of Harriet Martineau, Secker and Warburg, 1957, pp. 399-01.
Martineau, Harriet. Berkeley the Banker. Charles Fox, 1833.
Martineau, Harriet. “Female Industry”. Criminals, Idiots, Women and Minors: Nineteenth-Century Writing by Women on Women, edited by Susan Hamilton, Broadview, 1995, pp. 29-73.
Martineau, Harriet. “Female Writers on Practical Divinity”. The Monthly Repository, Vol.
17
, pp. 593-6.
Martineau, Harriet. For Each and For All. Charles Fox, 1832.
Martineau, Harriet. For Each and For All. John W. Lovell Co., 1884.
Martineau, Harriet. Forest and Game-Law Tales. Edward Moxon, 1846.
Martineau, Harriet. French Wines and Politics. Charles Fox, 1833.
Martineau, Harriet. Guide to Windermere. J. Garnett, 1854.