Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Isa Blagden
-
Standard Name: Blagden, Isa
Birth Name: Isabella Jane Blagden
Pseudonym: Ivory Beryl
Used Form: the author of Agnes Tremorne
Used Form: the authoress of Agnes Tremorne
IB
is the author of five fairly sentimental yet often outspokenly feminist novels, a small volume of poetry, and a number of essays and short stories—almost all of which were published in London during the 1860s. She lived primarily in Florence, and much of her work deals with Italian settings, characters, and politics. Her writing also frequently addresses the issues of women's occupations and independence, of female artistic genius, of mesmerism and spiritualism, and of moral as opposed to physical beauty.
"Isa Blagden" Retrieved from https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/58/Isa_Blagden.jpg/772px-Isa_Blagden.jpg.This work is licensed under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication license. This work is in the public domain.
Dickens
, on the other hand, though fond of both the Trollopes and the Ternans, apparently confided that he did not in the least care for Fanny, whom he judged, with evident misgivings, to be...
Family and Intimate relationships
Frances Eleanor Trollope
In 1867, the year after their marriage, FET
and her husband separated for a while. They publicly said little of their troubles; they may have had disagreements over the scandal surrounding Ellen Ternan
and Charles Dickens
Fictionalization
George Sand
Other British women writers also found their admiration mingled with disapprobation. Elizabeth Barrett
read GS
eagerly and recognised her importance, but reflected the opinion of many in often finding the writing inappropriate for a woman...
Friends, Associates
Robert Browning
In his later years RB
became ensconced among London's cultural elite. He carried on a close friendships through correspondence and some visits with Julia Wedgwood
and Isa Blagden
—he also assisted Blagden's writing career. He...
Friends, Associates
Frances Power Cobbe
FPC
's connections from home gave her introductions into the circles of US and British women living in Italy, including Harriet Hosmer
(who became a close friend). She met Elizabeth Barrett
and Robert Browning
...
Friends, Associates
Matilda Hays
In Italy, MH
socialized with a number of prominent figures including Isa Blagden
, Sara Lippincott
, Elizabeth Barrett Browning
and her husband
. Barrett Browning commented on the house of emancipated women...
Friends, Associates
Edward Robert Bulwer Lytton, first Earl Lytton
His international travel and family ties to England's literary scene ensured him a wide social circle. He knew Charles Dickens
, John Forster
, and Frances Mary Peard
. While living in Florence, he became...
Friends, Associates
Linda Villari
She was a friend of the writer Isa Blagden
and was instrumental in gathering Blagden's poems for posthumous publication in 1873.
Despite the popularity of HHK
's work into the twentieth century, it has not fared well critically. She has seldom been mentioned in recent critical discussions, although several of her poems are anthologized in feminist...
Textual Features
Linda Villari
In Change Unchanged is another of LV
's novels with a plethora of landscape description and hints of the autobiographical. Throughout the life journey of its protagonist, Edith Henderson, which includes the seclusion and loneliness...
Textual Production
Frances Power Cobbe
In November 1857, FPC
wrote an anonymous review of a pseudonymous novel by her brother Thomas
. She also reviewed the work of other intimates, including Isa Blagden
, whose The Cost of a Secret...
Textual Production
Charles Dickens
A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens's romance about the French Revolution set largely in Paris, appeared in 1859 in several forms:first serially in his new journal All the Year Round, and, overlapping...
Travel
Frances Power Cobbe
By November 1859 the living arrangement with Carpenter was unraveling. FPC
spent some time in Florence (from about February to May 1860), where she again stayed with Isa Blagden
. She was back in Italy...
Timeline
No timeline events available.
Texts
Blagden, Isa. “A Holiday in Venice”. Cornhill Magazine, Vol.
12
, pp. 441-51.
Blagden, Isa. “A Model and a Wife”. Fraser’s Magazine, Vol.
66
, No. 361, pp. 95-113.
Blagden, Isa. “A Tuscan Village--A Tuscan Sanctuary”. Cornhill Magazine, Vol.
10
, pp. 461-76.
Blagden, Isa. “A Tuscan Wedding”. Once a Week: An Illustrated Miscellany, Vol.
vi
, pp. 78-94.
Blagden, Isa. Agnes Tremorne. Smith, Elder, 1861.
Browning, Robert, and Isa Blagden. Dearest Isa: Robert Browning’s Letters to Isabella Blagden. Editor McAleer, Edward C., Greenwood Press.
Browning, Robert, and Isa Blagden. “Introduction”. Dearest Isa: Robert Browning’s Letters to Isabella Blagden, edited by Edward C. McAleer, Greenwood Press, 1970, p. xix - xxxiii.
Austin, Alfred, and Isa Blagden. “Memoir”. Poems, William Blackwood and Sons, 1873.
Blagden, Isa. Nora and Archibald Lee. Chapman and Hall, 1867.
Blagden, Isa, and Alfred Austin. Poems. William Blackwood and Sons, 1873.
Blagden, Isa. “Recollections of Gibson the Sculptor”. Cornhill Magazine, Vol.
17
, pp. 540-6.
Blagden, Isa. The Cost of a Secret. Chapman and Hall, 1863.
Blagden, Isa. The Crown of a life. Hurst and Blackett, 1869.
Blagden, Isa. The Woman I Loved and the Woman Who Loved Me. Chapman and Hall, 1865.
Blagden, Isa. “The Woman I Loved, and The Woman Who Loved Me”. Once A Week: An Illustrated Miscellany, Vol.
