Montagu Pennington (1762 1849) published this account of the life and work of the English poet and classicist Elizabeth Carter (1717 1806) in 1807. Carter first made her name in 1758 through her English translation of the work of the Greek Stoic philosopher Epictetus, for which she was acclaimed by Samuel Johnson as the 'best Greek scholar in England'. Carter also published numerous essays, articles, and translations and was an influential member of the Blue Stockings Society; later in life, she became an evangelical Christian. This volume vividly recounts her education, life, and scholarly...

Women novelists dominated the market in Victorian times, covering all genres from the mainstream to the Gothic, religious and sensational. Some are now classic household names whilst others, popular in their time, lie neglected on the shelves. This collection of appraisals of female writers by female writers was published in 1897 as a contribution to the celebrations of Queen Victoria as the longest reigning British monarch. The brief is exact: only those whose work was done after the Queen's accession and who were dead would be included. Nonetheless, the range is wide and includes essays on...

The daughter of a naval officer, Maria Graham (1785 1842), later Lady Callcott, combined her passion for travel with a diligent attention to scholarship and self-improvement. In 1808, the talented linguist and artist sailed for India with her family. She travelled widely in south and east India and Ceylon, and became fascinated by the culture, religion and antiquities of the sub-continent. This, the first of her celebrated travel journals, was published on her return to England in 1812. She regarded it as a supplement to scholarly works of history or economics, aiming to give a real, and...

Margaret Heitland (1860 1938), nee Bateson, who became active in the suffrage movement, was the daughter of William Henry Bateson, Master of St John's College, Cambridge. In 1886 she moved to London to work as a journalist, joining in 1888 the staff on the magazine, The Queen, where she began its 'Women's employment department' feature the following year. She returned to Cambridge in 1901 upon her marriage to William Emerton Heitland, a Fellow of St John's, and she continued to be very active in the women's movement. This fascinating series of conversations with Victorian professional women...