Jane Harrison

Leon Surette (University of Western Ontario)

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

Born 9 Sep 1850
Died 5 Apr 1928
Activity 1870-1928

Places

Born in England
Active in England

Activities

Primary

Anthropologist
Classicist

Resources

Harrison's Works

Save to Bookshelf

Jane Harrison was born on Sept. 9, 1850 in Nottinghamshire, Yorkshire. She was raised by a devout evangelical stepmother (her mother having died shortly after her birth) and educated by an assortment of governesses until sent to Cheltenham College for Ladies at the age of seventeen. She later described Cheltenham as an “abyss of fatuous prudery into which the girls’ schools of the middle Victorian period – even the very best – had fallen” (

Reminiscences

321). Nonetheless, she won a scholarship to Newnham, the recently (1871) established Cambridge Women’s College in 1874. Leaving Cambridge with high grades, but no degree in 1879 (women were not granted degrees at Cambridge until 1948), Harrison moved to London where she supported herself by giving public lectures on art.…

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1477 words

Citation: Surette, Leon. "Jane Harrison". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 28 August 2018 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2000, accessed 26 November 2024.]