Geraldine Jewsbury
Encyclopedia
Geraldine Endsor Jewsbury (22 August 1812 – 23 September 1880) was an English
novelist and woman of letters.
, then in Derbyshire
, now in Leicestershire
. She was the daughter of Thomas Jewsbury (d. 1840), a cotton manufacturer and merchant, and his wife Maria, née Smith, (d. 1819). The family moved to Manchester
in 1818, after her father's business failed. After her mother died, she was brought up by her sister Maria Jewsbury, also an author. She was educated at a boarding school kept by the Misses Darbys at Alders Mill near Tamworth
, and continued her studies in French, Italian, and drawing in London in 1830–31. After her sister's marriage, Geraldine acted as housekeeper first to her father and then to her brother Frank up to his marriage in 1854, after which she moved to Chelsea
, London. She never married. She moved to Sevenoaks
, Kent
after the death of her friend Jane Carlyle in 1866, but died of cancer in a private London
hospital in 1880 and was buried in Brompton Cemetery
.
Jewsbury was primarily a novelist of ideas and moral dilemmas. Her first novel, Zoe: the History of Two Lives (1845), was an immediate success. It had begun as joint project with Jane Carlyle and a mutual friend, Elizabeth Paulet, although the two co-authors soon withdrew. Outwardly a romantic tale, it concerns "the predicament of a gifted and aspiring woman in a society that dictates gender roles, and the mental agonies of a conscientious [male] thinker" who lapses from Catholicism. This places it as a "novel of doubt" (similar attempts being made by Charlotte Yonge, Mrs Humphrey Ward and others) and alongside the "female novels" of the Brontës
, Mrs Gaskell
and George Eliot
. The books' linkage of sexual feelings with spiritual anguish has invited comparison with George Sand. As Jewsbury wrote to Jane Carlyle, the protagonist Zoe is demanding, "What are we sent into this world at all for? What ought we to do with our life?" Jane Carlyle described the manuscript in a letter of February 1844 as "a wonderful book! - Decidedly the cleverest Englishwoman's book I ever remember to have read." Jewsbury's next novel, The Half Sisters (1848), which the author thought her best, contrasts the life of a businessman's wife with the more meaningful one of her actress half-sister. This again raised an issue that was controversial in its time (cf. Madame de Staël's Corinne and Sand's Consuelo). Her third, Marian Withers (1851), had an industrial setting and was serialized in the Manchester Examiner and Times. Three further novels aimed at adults (Constance Herbert, 1855; The Sorrows of Gentility, 1856; Right or Wrong, 1859) attracted less interest. She also wrote two novels for children, The History of an Adopted Child (1852) and Angelo, or, The Pine Forest in the Alps (1855).
As a woman of letters, Jewsbury began by contributing to Douglas Jerrold's Shilling Magazine in 1846. She went on to be a regular contributor to the weekly Athenaeum
, where she is thought to have reviewed up to 2000 books from 1849 onwards. Dickens
commissioned 17 stories from her for his Household Words
over the years 1850 to 1859. In a magazine essay entitled 'Religious Faith and Modern Scepticism', she saw spiritual problems as "the beginning of a wider and deeper insight - a larger faith and increased knowledge." Meanwhile she also worked as a publisher's reader, for Hurst and Blackett, and from 1859 for Bentley, recommending for instance that Bentley publish Ellen Wood
's bestselling East Lynne
(1861), yet turn down such later successful authors as Rhoda Broughton
, M. E. Braddon, and Ouida
.
Jewsbury's growing literary prominence and startling, unconventional personality (smoking and wearing men's clothes like Sand) soon brought her a place in literary society. Her friends included the Huxley, Kingsley, Rossetti, and Browning families, W. E. Forster (with whom she visited revolutionary Paris in 1848), John Bright, John Ruskin and G. H. Lewes. She helped the elderly Lady Morgan with her memoirs (1862). Her friendship with the Carlyles began in April 1840, when in a state of depression over a love affair and her father's mortal illness, she wrote to Thomas Carlyle that she had lost her faith in God. Her lifelong friendships with both Thomas and Jane Carlyle developed until she Jane Carlyle's closest friend. There is a surviving collection of 126 letters to them. The 1892 Selection of the Letters of Geraldine Jewsbury to Jane Carlyle caused controversy over the emotional side of their relationship.
Jewsbury was rewarded in 1874 with a Civil List
pension of £40 a year.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
novelist and woman of letters.
Life and family
Jewsbury was born in MeashamMeasham
Measham is a village in Leicestershire, near the Staffordshire and Derbyshire border, located just off the A42 just south of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, and within the National Forest...
, then in Derbyshire
Derbyshire
Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains. The county contains within its boundary of approx...
, now in Leicestershire
Leicestershire
Leicestershire is a landlocked county in the English Midlands. It takes its name from the heavily populated City of Leicester, traditionally its administrative centre, although the City of Leicester unitary authority is today administered separately from the rest of Leicestershire...
. She was the daughter of Thomas Jewsbury (d. 1840), a cotton manufacturer and merchant, and his wife Maria, née Smith, (d. 1819). The family moved to Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
in 1818, after her father's business failed. After her mother died, she was brought up by her sister Maria Jewsbury, also an author. She was educated at a boarding school kept by the Misses Darbys at Alders Mill near Tamworth
Tamworth
Tamworth is a town and local government district in Staffordshire, England, located north-east of Birmingham city centre and north-west of London. The town takes its name from the River Tame, which flows through the town, as does the River Anker...
, and continued her studies in French, Italian, and drawing in London in 1830–31. After her sister's marriage, Geraldine acted as housekeeper first to her father and then to her brother Frank up to his marriage in 1854, after which she moved to Chelsea
Chelsea, London
Chelsea is an area of West London, England, bounded to the south by the River Thames, where its frontage runs from Chelsea Bridge along the Chelsea Embankment, Cheyne Walk, Lots Road and Chelsea Harbour. Its eastern boundary was once defined by the River Westbourne, which is now in a pipe above...
, London. She never married. She moved to Sevenoaks
Sevenoaks
Sevenoaks is a commuter town situated on the London fringe of west Kent, England, some 20 miles south-east of Charing Cross, on one of the principal commuter rail lines from the capital...
, Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
after the death of her friend Jane Carlyle in 1866, but died of cancer in a private London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
hospital in 1880 and was buried in Brompton Cemetery
Brompton Cemetery
Brompton Cemetery is located near Earl's Court in South West London, England . It is managed by The Royal Parks and is one of the Magnificent Seven...
.
Place in literature
Jewsbury has earned a place in literature in three respects: as a novelist, as a critic and publisher's reader, and as a figure in London literary life.Jewsbury was primarily a novelist of ideas and moral dilemmas. Her first novel, Zoe: the History of Two Lives (1845), was an immediate success. It had begun as joint project with Jane Carlyle and a mutual friend, Elizabeth Paulet, although the two co-authors soon withdrew. Outwardly a romantic tale, it concerns "the predicament of a gifted and aspiring woman in a society that dictates gender roles, and the mental agonies of a conscientious [male] thinker" who lapses from Catholicism. This places it as a "novel of doubt" (similar attempts being made by Charlotte Yonge, Mrs Humphrey Ward and others) and alongside the "female novels" of the Brontës
Charlotte Brontë
Charlotte Brontë was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Brontë sisters who survived into adulthood, whose novels are English literature standards...
, Mrs Gaskell
Elizabeth Gaskell
Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, née Stevenson , often referred to simply as Mrs Gaskell, was a British novelist and short story writer during the Victorian era...
and George Eliot
George Eliot
Mary Anne Evans , better known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, journalist and translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era...
. The books' linkage of sexual feelings with spiritual anguish has invited comparison with George Sand. As Jewsbury wrote to Jane Carlyle, the protagonist Zoe is demanding, "What are we sent into this world at all for? What ought we to do with our life?" Jane Carlyle described the manuscript in a letter of February 1844 as "a wonderful book! - Decidedly the cleverest Englishwoman's book I ever remember to have read." Jewsbury's next novel, The Half Sisters (1848), which the author thought her best, contrasts the life of a businessman's wife with the more meaningful one of her actress half-sister. This again raised an issue that was controversial in its time (cf. Madame de Staël's Corinne and Sand's Consuelo). Her third, Marian Withers (1851), had an industrial setting and was serialized in the Manchester Examiner and Times. Three further novels aimed at adults (Constance Herbert, 1855; The Sorrows of Gentility, 1856; Right or Wrong, 1859) attracted less interest. She also wrote two novels for children, The History of an Adopted Child (1852) and Angelo, or, The Pine Forest in the Alps (1855).
As a woman of letters, Jewsbury began by contributing to Douglas Jerrold's Shilling Magazine in 1846. She went on to be a regular contributor to the weekly Athenaeum
Athenaeum (magazine)
The Athenaeum was a literary magazine published in London from 1828 to 1921. It had a reputation for publishing the very best writers of the age....
, where she is thought to have reviewed up to 2000 books from 1849 onwards. Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
commissioned 17 stories from her for his Household Words
Household Words
Household Words was an English weekly magazine edited by Charles Dickens in the 1850s which took its name from the line from Shakespeare "Familiar in his mouth as household words" — Henry V.-History:...
over the years 1850 to 1859. In a magazine essay entitled 'Religious Faith and Modern Scepticism', she saw spiritual problems as "the beginning of a wider and deeper insight - a larger faith and increased knowledge." Meanwhile she also worked as a publisher's reader, for Hurst and Blackett, and from 1859 for Bentley, recommending for instance that Bentley publish Ellen Wood
Ellen Wood (author)
Ellen Wood , was an English novelist, better known as "Mrs. Henry Wood". She is best known for her 1861 novel East Lynne.-Life:...
's bestselling East Lynne
East Lynne
East Lynne is an English sensation novel of 1861 by Ellen Wood. East Lynne was a Victorian bestseller. It is remembered chiefly for its elaborate and implausible plot, centering on infidelity and double identities...
(1861), yet turn down such later successful authors as Rhoda Broughton
Rhoda Broughton
Rhoda Broughton was a novelist.-Life:Rhoda Broughton was born in Denbigh in North Wales on 29 November 1840. She was the daughter of the Rev. Delves Broughton youngest son of the Rev. Sir Henry Delves-Broughton, 8th baronet. She developed a taste for literature, especially poetry, as a young girl...
, M. E. Braddon, and Ouida
Ouida
Ouida was the pseudonym of the English novelist Maria Louise Ramé .-Biography:...
.
Jewsbury's growing literary prominence and startling, unconventional personality (smoking and wearing men's clothes like Sand) soon brought her a place in literary society. Her friends included the Huxley, Kingsley, Rossetti, and Browning families, W. E. Forster (with whom she visited revolutionary Paris in 1848), John Bright, John Ruskin and G. H. Lewes. She helped the elderly Lady Morgan with her memoirs (1862). Her friendship with the Carlyles began in April 1840, when in a state of depression over a love affair and her father's mortal illness, she wrote to Thomas Carlyle that she had lost her faith in God. Her lifelong friendships with both Thomas and Jane Carlyle developed until she Jane Carlyle's closest friend. There is a surviving collection of 126 letters to them. The 1892 Selection of the Letters of Geraldine Jewsbury to Jane Carlyle caused controversy over the emotional side of their relationship.
Jewsbury was rewarded in 1874 with a Civil List
Civil List Act 1837
The Civil List Act 1837 was an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom, signed into law on 23 December 1837.It reiterated the principles of the civil list system, stating that the newly-accessioned Queen Victoria undertook to transfer all hereditary revenues of the Crown to the Treasury during her...
pension of £40 a year.
External links
- Geraldine Jewsbury's review of George EliotGeorge EliotMary Anne Evans , better known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, journalist and translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era...
's The Mill on the FlossThe Mill on the FlossThe Mill on the Floss is a novel by George Eliot , first published in three volumes in 1860 by William Blackwood. The first American edition was by Thomas Y...
, (AthenæumAthenaeum (magazine)The Athenaeum was a literary magazine published in London from 1828 to 1921. It had a reputation for publishing the very best writers of the age....
, April 7, 1860).