Harriet Martineau, Harriet Martineau's Autobiography

Valerie Sanders (University of Hull)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.07: English Writing and Culture of the Victorian Period, 1837-1901.
Vol. editors: Gillian Fenwick (University of Toronto), Jessica Gossling (Goldsmiths College, University of London)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1877

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Non-Fiction
- Autobiography (literary)

Resources

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Harriet Martineau's Autobiography

is an unusually outspoken example of the genre, particularly for a woman writing in the nineteenth century. It was composed by Martineau in the first three months of 1855 at headlong speed in the belief that she had a fatal heart disease and would hardly live to complete it. In the event, she lived for another twenty-one years, but she added nothing to the manuscript, which had already been printed and stored for posthumous publication. Her American friend and literary executor, Maria Weston Chapman, assembled a third volume consisting of personal memories, journal extracts and additional material covering the last twenty years of Martineau's life. For many years this third volume remained out of print, widely dismissed as eulogistic and of little…

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1184 words

Citation: Sanders, Valerie. "Harriet Martineau's Autobiography". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 28 January 2004; last revised 19 April 2024. [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=13038, accessed 25 April 2024.]

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