Bessie Rayner Parkes

-
Standard Name: Parkes, Bessie Rayner
Birth Name: Elizabeth Rayner Parkes
Nickname: Bessie
Married Name: Elizabeth Rayner Belloc
Bessie Rayner Parkes (later Belloc) , a late nineteenth-century feminist, focused her writings especially on issues relating to women's work. During her life she published a collection of miscellaneous essays, a collection of vignettes, numerous articles in periodicals, a travel book, and political treatises. Though her feminist writings have been better recognized, her passion was poetry. She published a lengthy philosophical poem in addition to three volumes of poems, some of which were later compiled into a collection.
Sepia toned photograph of Bessie Rayner Parkes, seated on an upholstered chair, with an ornate table next to her. Her hands are clasped in her lap, she is wearing a dark dress with a voluminous skirt and long sleeves. She has dark, wavy, shoulder-length hair.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Intertextuality and Influence George Eliot
Mary Ann Evans had been reading Das Leben Jesu by David Friedrich Strauss when she was persuaded by her new circle of liberal friends at Coventry to take on the task of translating it into...
Textual Production George Eliot
On 3 February 1858 GE declined an invitation from Bessie Rayner Parkes to write for the new English Woman's Journal. She explained, in strictest confidence, that she had given up writing articles in order...
Textual Features George Eliot
This story is equally remarkable for the portraits of Mr Tryan (the Evangelical clergyman who not only converts Janet to his beliefs but succeeds in sparking her will to regeneration) and of Janet herself, but...
Friends, Associates George Eliot
Bessie Rayner Parkes (already a friend of Marian Evans—later GE ) introduced her to Barbara Leigh Smith , who became her close confidant and supporter.
Karl, Frederick R. George Eliot: Voice of a Century. W.W. Norton, 1995.
136
Family and Intimate relationships George Eliot
Lewes was married. He and his wife had agreed as rational free-thinkers that monogamy was unnatural. He had thus tolerated her relationship with his friend Thornton Hunt , and supported her children by Hunt, who...
Friends, Associates George Eliot
Some of her closest friends were prominent feminists, and they were among those soonest willing to flout convention and visit her after her union to Lewes.
Despite the social and spiritual gulf between them, GE
politics Emily Faithfull
EF and Bessie Parkes founded the Edinburgh branch of the Society for Promoting the Employment of Women (SPEW).
Stone, James S. Emily Faithfull: Victorian Champion of Women’s Rights. P. D. Meany, 1994.
44
Textual Production Emily Faithfull
Bessie Rayner Parkes cancelled The English Woman's Journal's printing contract with the Victoria Press , perhaps aware of the impending divorce trial involving EF .
Stone, James S. Emily Faithfull: Victorian Champion of Women’s Rights. P. D. Meany, 1994.
17
politics Emily Faithfull
Tired of the London social scene, and determined to do some literary work,
qtd. in
Stone, James S. Emily Faithfull: Victorian Champion of Women’s Rights. P. D. Meany, 1994.
15
EF began working at The English Woman's Journal, a periodical involved in all aspects of the women's movement, but directly...
politics Emily Faithfull
By 1859 The English Woman's Journal was felt to be no longer adequate on its own for promoting women's work, and Jessie Boucherett suggested the creation of a society which would deal specifically with this...
politics Emily Faithfull
In an effort to encourage women's participation in the printing trade, SPEW experimented with their own press. EF agreed to oversee the project. Bessie Parkes purchased a press and type, and hired a printer to...
Friends, Associates Emily Faithfull
As a member of the Langham Place GroupEF counted most of the women activists of the day among her friends. Her far-flung circle of associates included Adelaide Procter and Frances Power Cobbe .
Stone, James S. Emily Faithfull: Victorian Champion of Women’s Rights. P. D. Meany, 1994.
183, 16
Other Life Event Emily Faithfull
Public interest was heightened by the Codringtons' social status and the sensational details of the case; the trial attracted a high degree of attention. Joseph Parkes passed on to Bessie Parkes the rumour that EF
Friends, Associates Emily Faithfull
EF suffered in various ways as a result of the trial. The sense that she had prevaricated, at the very least, alienated many of her associates on The English Woman's Journal, including Emily Davies
Textual Production Emily Faithfull
When EF went to work at The English Woman's Journal in November 1858, it was under the editorship of Bessie Rayner Parkes , who had already published poetry and social criticism. When the Victoria Press

Timeline

No timeline events available.

Texts

No bibliographical results available.