Harriet Martineau first rose to fame as a populariser of political economy, but her long literary career involved her in a full range of both fiction and non-fiction writing. Among other works, she published a particularly outspoken and forthright autobiography, a novel,
Deerbrook(1839), a
History of England during the Thirty Years’ Peace, and sociological studies based on her travels in North America and the Middle East. In fact there were few major genres that she did not attempt at some point in her life. She can be seen as one of the most prominent and versatile women of letters of the nineteenth century, as well as one of the most controversial.
Harriet Martineau was born in Norwich, England on 12 June 1802, the sixth of eight children of Thomas Martineau (1764-1826), manufacturer
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Citation: Sanders, Valerie. "Harriet Martineau". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 05 August 2003 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2965, accessed 24 November 2024.]
