Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Edith Somerville
-
Standard Name: Somerville, Edith
Birth Name: Edith Anne Œnone Somerville
Pseudonym: Geilles Herring
Pseudonym: Viva Graham
Pseudonym: E. Œ. Somerville
Pseudonym: Somerville and Ross
ES
, who published from 1885, is known from the Somerville and Ross partnership which produced at least one important novel and a collection of classic comic stories (set in the west of Ireland and centred on fox-hunting), as well as other endearing Irish sketches and travel writings. She continued to write in these genres, mostly story and memoir, after Ross's death (which she saw as interrupting but not ending their collaboration). The later works (the last appeared in 1949) are suffused with nostalgia, and very largely dominated by the need to make money, to keep going an estate which was no longer financially viable. The massive archive of ES
's diary and letters is still almost unexamined.
Violet belonged to the wealthy Anglo-Irish Protestant ascendancy.
Cronin, John. Somerville and Ross. Bucknell University Press.
15
Her family, of Norman origin, had been one of the largest landowners in the west of Ireland during the eighteenth century, and still held about six...
Textual Production
Martin Ross
Edith Somerville
and MR
finished writing their novel The Real Charlotte, which first brought them public success.
Collis, Maurice. Somerville and Ross: A Biography. Faber and Faber.
98
Intertextuality and Influence
Martin Ross
Before ever meeting her cousin Edith Somerville
, Violet Ross
had written articles (perhaps in emulation of her eldest brother
) and probably poetry, but none of this survives.
Collis, Maurice. Somerville and Ross: A Biography. Faber and Faber.
24
Textual Production
Martin Ross
Edith Somerville
and MR
published, with Ward and Downey
, their most popular novel, The Real Charlotte.
Collis, Maurice. Somerville and Ross: A Biography. Faber and Faber.
98, 103
Textual Features
Martin Ross
MR
's letters were always remarkable for vividness, forcefulness, and breadth of emotional sympathy. She wrote particularly memorably to Edith Somerville
during the summer of 1888, from her childhood home in the west of Ireland...
Publishing
Martin Ross
Edith Somerville
, rising ninety, received the news that Oxford University Press
was reprinting The Real Charlotte (by herself and MR
) in the World's Classics series.
Collis, Maurice. Somerville and Ross: A Biography. Faber and Faber.
275
Material Conditions of Writing
Martin Ross
MR
and Edith Somerville
, staying at Etaples in France, began work on the stories which became Some Experiences of an Irish R. M.
Collis, Maurice. Somerville and Ross: A Biography. Faber and Faber.
123
Family and Intimate relationships
Martin Ross
Violet Martin (later MR
) met her second cousin Edith Somerville
for the first time, while staying in the village of Castletownshend, in Cork.
Collis, Maurice. Somerville and Ross: A Biography. Faber and Faber.
39, 25-8
Cronin, John. Somerville and Ross. Bucknell University Press.
14
Textual Production
Martin Ross
Edith Somerville
and MR
published the book for which they were and are most famous: Some Experiences of an Irish R. M., illustrated by Somerville herself.
Cummins, Geraldine. Dr. E. Œ. Somerville: A Biography. Andrew Dakers.
253-4
Collis, Maurice. Somerville and Ross: A Biography. Faber and Faber.
126
Wealth and Poverty
Martin Ross
MR
made her will: she left all her worldly possessions (including her literary copyrights) to Edith Somerville
.
Collis
connects this action with her ill health; but it seems more likely to have stemmed from...
Textual Production
Martin Ross
Edith Somerville
and MR
published a sequel to their most successful book: Further Experiences of an Irish R. M.
Collis, Maurice. Somerville and Ross: A Biography. Faber and Faber.
146
Cummins, Geraldine. Dr. E. Œ. Somerville: A Biography. Andrew Dakers.
257
Textual Production
Martin Ross
Violet Martin (later MR
) made her first diary mention of her recently-met cousin and later collaborator, Edith Somerville
, who was painting her portrait.
Collis, Maurice. Somerville and Ross: A Biography. Faber and Faber.
28
Textual Production
Martin Ross
Edith Somerville
and MR
published the third and last in the Irish R. M. series: In Mr. Knox's Country (where country signifies the area hunted over by a particular pack of hounds).
Collis, Maurice. Somerville and Ross: A Biography. Faber and Faber.
166
Cummins, Geraldine. Dr. E. Œ. Somerville: A Biography. Andrew Dakers.
259
Publishing
Martin Ross
In MR
's first collaboration with her cousin Edith Somerville
(an article on palmistry published in the Graphic) the writing was by Ross, the illustrations by Somerville.
Collis, Maurice. Somerville and Ross: A Biography. Faber and Faber.
