Elizabeth Gaskel I read a book by her entitled *North and South. *It is an excellent book-all these books are very good- and I believe that this book was portrayed on Masterpiece Theater.
I’ve only read “Cranworth,” which is more a series of linked stories. Good in a quiet way but didn’t bowl me over.
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Thus far my favorite author and guess what? Jane Austen liked her too. Burney was married to a Catholic and she is more sympathetic toward Catholics then some other writers of the time period.
I really want to read her–I never have. Thanks for reminding me.
The same goes for Radcliffe.
**Marie Edgeworth **I recently finished reading Belinda(1801) Another good book
I’ve read the Absentee. Very interesting for early-19th-century Irish history (the “Absentee” of the title is an absentee landlord of Irish estates, and there’s a moving passage late in the novel where he actually visits Ireland and gets to know the Irish peasants).
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Currently I am reading a book entitled Hester by this woman. It is an interesting read because one of the characters, Catherine Vernon-a woman, of course- used to run a successful bank! Wait, I thought women couldn’t do these things in the 1800s? Apparently they could in Oliphant’s novels. She also wrote a very entertaining book that is more humorous then Hester. That book is Miss Marjobanks
I’ve heard of her but have not read the book.
Here are a few more Victorian writers that you might find intriguing:
First of all, there’s Charlotte Yonge–an Anglo-Catholic novelist whose novels (at least the two I’ve read) focus on coming-of-age stories about sensitive, intelligent, devout young people. The *Heir of Redcliffe *is sentimental and melodramatic but a great read. And her theology is pretty close to Catholicism (one of her novels focuses on the spiritually harmful effects of a young woman’s decision to put off confirmation–she is thus deprived of the grace of the Sacrament and isn’t ready for the trials and temptations that come her way).
Then there’s Dinah Maria Mulock Craik, best known today perhaps for her children’s novel *The LIttle Lame Prince. *But she also wrote a novel called *John Halifax, Gentleman, *that I enjoyed as a teenager. It’s another coming-of-age story about a morally upright young man–quite a bit like Yonge. Given the other writers you’ve listed, I think you’d like Craik.
Jane Porter’s *Scottish Chiefs *is the Braveheart of the early 19th century (in subject matter, that is!). She also wrote a novel about a Polish patriot, *Thaddeus of Warsaw. *I started it but never finished it, but I loved Scottish Chiefs. It’s way over the top and idealized, but fun if you like that sort of thing.
Then there are a bunch of evangelical female novelists that my mother and I used to read out loud to each other (as we did with Austen, Craik, and the Brontes). But I won’t burden you with those unless you are really interested.
A secondary source worth reading is *Gains and Losses: Novels of Faith and Doubt in Victorian England, *by Robert Lee Wolff. He discusses a lot of female writers of various religious stripes (I think this is where I’ve read about Oliphant, actually).
Edwin
I must be easily amused because I always find that scene humorous.
Give me a rough and burly Rochester any day!