(Their dates will indicate their place in our history of development:
where they are not alluded to.)
MARGARET, DUCHESS OF NEWCASTLE (1624-1673), in her _CCXI Sociable
Letters_ (1664), tells an imaginary narrative by correspondence, which
she describes as “rather scenes than letters, for I have endeavoured
under cover of letters to express the humours of mankind.” Also author
of _Nature’s Pictures drawn by Fancie’s pencil_ (1656).
FRANCES SHERIDAN.--Her _Memoirs of Miss Sydney Biddulph, extracted
from her own Journal_ (1761), made a name by its supreme melancholy.
The heroine suffers from obeying her mother, and receives no
reward. Dr. Johnson “did not know whether she had a right, on moral
principles, to make her readers suffer so much.”
MISS CLARA REEVE (1725-1803) began to write novels at fifty-one,
and attempted in _The Old English Baron_ (1777) to compromise with
the School of Terror, by limiting herself to “the utmost _verge_ of
probability.” Her “groan” is not interesting, and Scott complains of
“a certain creeping and low line of narrative and sentiment”; adding,
however, that perhaps “to be somewhat _prosy_ is a secret mode of
securing a certain necessary degree of credulity from the hearers of a
ghost-story.”
ANNA SEWARD (1747-1809), a florid and picturesque poetess, whose
verse-novel _Louisa_ was valued in her day. She has a place in Scott’s
_Lives of the Novelists_.
CHARLOTTE SMITH (1749-1806).--Her _The Old Manor House_ reveals
independent, and novel, appreciation of scenery, illustrated by an
unobtrusive familiarity with natural history. Her plots “bear the
appearance of having been hastily run up,” but her characterisation is
vigorous. There is a “tone of melancholy” throughout.
HARRIET (1766-1851) and SOPHIA (1750-1824) LEE wrote some of the
earliest historical novels--_The Recess; or, A Tale of other Times_
(1783), introducing Queen Elizabeth and the “coarse virulence that
marks her manners,” and the _Canterbury Tales_, from which Byron
borrowed.
MRS. BENNET, whose _Anna; or, The Memoirs of a Welsh Heiress_ (1785)
is a bad imitation of Miss Burney, “with a catchpenny interspersion.”
REGINA MARIA ROCHE, author of the once popular _The Children of the
Abbey_ (1798). Richardson, diluted with Mackenzie--in “elegant”
language.
MRS. OPIE (1769-1853).--One of her best stories, _Adeline Mowbray; or,
The Mother and Daughter_ (1804), is partially founded on the life of
Godwin, and shows the influence of his theories.
JANE PORTER (1776-1850), author of _Thaddeus of Warsaw_ and _The
Scottish Chiefs_, who claimed unjustly to have “invented” the
historical romance, _copied_ by Scott. Very famous in her day.
Also ANNA MARIA PORTER (1780-1832), author of _Don Sebastian_.
MRS. BRUNTON (1778-1818), author of the excellent _Self-Control_
(1811) and _Discipline_ (1814), which were overshadowed by Susan
Ferrier. Lacking humour, her morality becomes tiresome, but she could
draw living characters. The Highland experiences of her heroine,
who, after marrying a minister, retained “a little of her coquettish
sauciness,” are significant for their date.
LADY MORGAN (1783-1859), as Miss Sydney Owenson, published _Wild Irish
Girl_ (1806), which is a fairly spirited réchauffé of all things
Celtic. Thackeray found here the name Glorvina, meaning “sweet voice.”
HENRIETTA MOSSE (otherwise Rouvière), whose _A Peep at our Ancestors_
(1807) and other novels have been described as “blocks of spiritless
and commonplace historic narrative.”
ANNA ELIZABETH BRAY (1789-1883), author of _The Protestant_, various
competent historical romances, and “local novels.”
MRS. SHERWOOD, an evangelical propagandist, who naïvely enforced her
views in _The Fairchild Family_ (1818) and _Little Henry and his
Bearer_.
ELIZABETH SEWELL set the style of High-Church propaganda, developed
by Miss Yonge. Her chief tales, _Gertrude_ and _Amy Herbert_ (1844),
are rigidly confined to everyday life. The characters, if living, are
uninteresting; and her morals are obtrusive.
CATHERINE GORE (1799-1861), author of over seventy tales; and, in her
own day, “the leader in the novel of fashion.”
LADY G. FULLERTON (1812-1885), author of _Emma Middleton_, who shares
with Miss Sewell the beginnings of High Church propaganda in fiction.
ANNE CALDWELL (MRS. MARSH), one of the best writers of the “revival”
in domesticity. Her _Emilia Wyndham_ (1846) was unfairly described as
the “book where the woman breaks her desk open with her head.” Though
contemporary with _Pendennis_, has no ease in style.
MRS. ARCHER CLIVE (1801-1873), author of an early and well-told story
of crime, entitled _Paul Ferroll_ (1855).
MRS. HENRY WOOD (1814-1887).--A good plot-maker, whose _East
Lynne_--both as book and play--has been phenomenally popular for many
years; though _The Channings_, and others, are better literature.