With a lifetime that spanned the Augustan age to the Victorian age, and a writing career nearly as long, Hannah More can be considered at once both the intellectual child of the Age of Johnson and, in spirit if not quite in chronology, the “first Victorian”. Her life and works reflect the dramatic shifts that occurred in British social, political, and literary culture over the course of the latter half of the long eighteenth century. Not surprisingly then, judgments of More’s work cover an equally broad span of critical interpretation. Received with near-universal praise and adulation during her lifetime and immediately following, More quickly became, like many elements of the eighteenth century, outdated by the revolutionized England of the nineteenth century. Eventually, More…
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Citation: Prior, Karen Swallow. "Hannah More". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 16 December 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=3191, accessed 26 November 2024.]
