Mary Shelley, the wife of the famous poet Percy Shelley, is renowned as the author of the romances “Frankenstein,” “Valperga, or the Life and Adventures of Castruccio, Prince of Lucca”; “Falkner”; “Lodore,” and “The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck.” A most peculiar work is “The Last Men,” a fiction of the final agonies of human society owing to the universal spread of pestilence.
Among the dramatists of the 19th Century Joanna Baillie was the foremost. In her “Plays of Passion” she illustrates each of the deepest and strongest passions of the human mind, such as Hate, Love, Jealousy, Fear, by a tragedy and a comedy. Other dramas were “The Family Legend”; “Henriquez”; “The Separation,” and other plays, which show remarkable power of analysis, and observation. They are all written in vigorous style.
Of the numerous novelists of the 19th Century Charlotte Bronté was received with universal delight. Her novels “Jane Eyre,” “Shirley” and “Villette” have all the vigor and individuality of poetic genius. She was “a star-like soul, whose genius followed no tradition and left no successors.”
Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell will be remembered for her intensely interesting books “Mary Barton,” “North and South,” the exquisitely humorous “Cranford,” and “Cousin Phyllis,” which has been fitly called an idyll in prose.
The prolific Catherine Grace Gore gives in the novels “The Banker’s Wife,” “Cecil, or the Adventures of a Coxcomb,” “Greville,” and “Ormington,” masterful pictures of the life and pursuits of the English upper classes.
Caroline Elizabeth Norton, after having given in her novel “The Undying One” a version of the legend of the Wandering Jew, became in her book “A voice from the Factories” a most eloquent priestess of reforms. She condemned especially child labor, the darkest blot on the social conditions of England.
In the middle of the 19th Century Mary A. Evans became famous under her nom de plume “George Eliot.” Having translated in 1844 David Strauss’ brilliant work “Das Leben Jesu,” and Spinoza’s “Ethics,” she published in 1858 her novel “Adam Bede,” which placed her at once in the front rank of modern authors. Her later novels “The Mill on the Floss,” “Silas Marner,” “Romola” and “Felix Holt” proved so many contributions to her fame.
In recent times the works of Mary Edgeworth, Charlotte R. Lenox, Anne M. Fielding Hall, Mary Braddon, Elizabeth Sheppard, Louise de la Ramée (Ouida), Matilde Blind, Anna Seward and Charlotte M. Younge have won much appreciation.
Of the woman-authors born in Scotland, Margaret Oliphant wrote “Chronicles of Carlingford” and the charming novels “Merkland”; “The Quiet Heart”; “Zaidee,” all of which are exquisite delineations of Scottish life and character. Another Scottish woman-author deserving of mention is Mary Ferrier, whose novels “Marriage,” “The Inheritance,” and “Destiny” breathe much originality and humor.
Of the Irish novelists Julia Kavanagh and Margaret Hamilton Hungerford must be mentioned, the former for her volumes “French Women of Letters”; and “English Women of Letters,” as well as for her novels “Adele”; “The Pearl Fountain”; “Sibyl’s Second Love”; and “Daisy Burns.” Marg. Hungerford’s novel “Molly Brown” has been much admired.