ELIZABETH CRAVEN AND HER WORLD

Sister Novelists: The Trailblazing Porter Sisters, Who Paved the Way for Jane Austen and the Brontës  by Devoney Looser. I wonder whether the blurb on this book was written by the publishers (Bloomsbury), or by the author. Nowadays publishers usually ask the author to write it. It claims:-" Before the Brontë sisters picked up their pens, or Jane Austen's heroines Elizabeth and Jane Bennet became household names, the literary world was celebrating a different pair of sisters: Jane and Anna Maria Porter. The Porters -- exact contemporaries of Jane Austen -- were brilliant, attractive, self-made single women of polite reputation who between them published 26 books and achieved global fame. They socialized among the rich and famous, tried to hide their family's considerable debt, and fell dramatically in and out of love. Their moving letters to each other confess every detail. Because the celebrity sisters expected their renown to live on, they preserved their papers, and the ...

     In his book  Who Betrays Elizabeth Bennet?: Further Puzzles in Classic Fiction , Professor John Sutherland raised the question of how the rumour of Elizabeth Bennet's imminent engagement to Mr Darcy could have reached the ears of Lady Catherine de Bourgh, prompting her to make her bossy and interfering call on Elizabeth at Longbourn in volume 3 of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice .      I love this sort of criticism, which used to be referred to as the "How many children had Lady Macbeth?" school. Now desperately unfashionable, it treats characters in novels as real people who exist beyond the parameters of the written narrative and can thus be followed and investigated outside the boundaries of the text. It makes an interesting game, and it is certainly far less absurd than many of the currently fashionable schools of criticism. Professor Sutherland is right, that if we cannot provide any reasonable explanation of how and why this rumour travell...

       Throughout her life, Elizabeth Craven was haunted by the scandal deliberately spread by her first husband, Lord Craven, at the time of their separation. It was impossible for any woman to separate from her husband in Georgian England without a tinge of unpleasant scandal, and he went further than most irate husbands, spreading sensational accounts of her behaviour to stir up malicious gossip.      Needless to say, he did not attract any opprobrium for having a mistress, but she f or the rest of her life, struggled to throw off this unfair reputation.     In 1794, when she had re-married and returned to England, a lengthy poem appeared entitled  The Children of Apollo: a Poem. Containing an Impartial Review of all the Dramatic Works of out Modern Authors and Authoresses. Particularly Lady Wallace. Margravine of Anspach. Honourable Major North. Honourable John St. John. Sheridan. Colman. Holcroft. Jackman. O'Keeffe. Coob. Cumberland...

There have been several noteworthy events in the past year or so.  The Eighteenth Century Poetry website has now got an updated and far more comprehensive entry on Elizabeth Craven. It used to list only one poem, and that was spurious! It has now got a far more accurate and comprehensive list together with an updated bibliography. https://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/authors/pers00215.shtml Gale publications has brought out a new printed edition of Craven's story Modern Anecdote of the Ancient Family of the Kinkvervankotsdarsprakengotchderns, originally published in 1780. This is well deserved.  Ecco, Print Editions (April 20, 2018)  ISBN-10: 1379900565      ISBN-13: 978-1379900566  I have published my biography of Craven's close friend, the artist and novelist Sophie de Tott, who spent some years living with her at Brandenburgh House in Hammersmith,  Sophie de Tott, Artist in a Time of Revolution. This has bearings...

The Eighteenth Century Poetry website has now got an updated and far more comprehensive entry on Elizabeth Craven.  Elizabeth Craven painted by Romney. © National Portrait Gallery, London It lists some of her most outstanding short poems, lists full-length biographies of her and mentions entries in the DNB and reference works. This is very welcome! https://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/authors/pers00215.shtml