This article is about the mid-19th century author; you may be looking for the early 20th century fashion designer Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon

Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon

Lucy Christiana, Lady Duff Gordon was a leading fashion designer in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, best known as "Lucile", her professional name. The first British designer to achieve international renown, Lucile was a widely-acknowledged innovator in couture styles as well as in fashion...

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Lucie, Lady Duff-Gordon (1821–1869) was an English

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...

 writer

Writer

A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....

. She is best known for her Letters from Egypt and Letters from the Cape. She had TB and in 1851 went to South Africa for the 'climate' which she hoped would help her health, living near the Cape of Good Hope

Cape of Good Hope

The Cape of Good Hope is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula, South Africa.There is a misconception that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Africa, because it was once believed to be the dividing point between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. In fact, the...

 for several years before travelling to Egypt in 1862.

In Egypt, she settled in Luxor where she learned Arabic and wrote many letters to her husband and her mother about her observation of Egyptian culture, religion and customs. Many critcs regard her as being 'progressive' and tolerant, although she also held problematic views of various racial groups. Her letters home are celebrated for their humor, her outrage at the ruling Ottomans, and many personal stories gleaned from the people around her. In many ways they are also typical of orientalist traveller tales of this time.

Most of her letters are to her husband, Alexander Duff-Gordon and her mother, Mrs. Sarah Austin. She married Duff-Gordon in Kensington in 1840. and their daughter, Janet Ann Ross

Janet Ross

-Early life:Janet Duff Gordon was the daughter of Sir Alexander Duff-Gordon and Lucie, Lady Duff-Gordon. Her father held a number of government positions, including Commissioner of Inland Revenue and her mother wrote the classic Letters from Egypt...

 (née Duff Gordon), was born in 1842 and died in 1927.

Lady Duff-Gordon was also the author of a number of translations, including one of Wilhelm Meinhold

Wilhelm Meinhold

Johann Wilhelm Meinhold was a Pomeranian priest and author.Meinhold was born in Netzelkow on the island of Usedom, where his father Georg Wilhelm Meinhold was Lutheran priest. Growing up in the atmosphere of the Napoleonic Wars, he matriculated at the University of Greifswald, Swedish Pomerania,...

's The Amber Witch

The Amber Witch

The Amber Witch is a Gothic novel and literary hoax written in 1839 by Johannes Wilhelm Meinhold and originally published in German as Maria Schweidler: Die Bernsteinhexe. In 1844 it was published in Britain as The Amber Witch in two English translations, one by E. A. Friedlander and another and...

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She is one of the characters in the novel The Mistress of Nothing by Kate Pullinger

Kate Pullinger

Kate Pullinger is a Canadian novelist and author of digital fiction currently lecturing at De Montfort University, England. She was born in Cranbrook, British Columbia, and went to high school on Vancouver Island. She dropped out of McGill University, Montreal after a year and a half and...

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