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.
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...
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.
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...
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...
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.
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...
Literary responses
Ellen Wood
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...