ELIZABETH CRAVEN AND HER WORLD

  Benham Park. in Berkshire, the former home of Elizabeth Craven, was the venue for a book launch event held last week to mark the appearance of a new literary biography of the late Georgian poet and playwright, Elizabeth Craven: Writer, Feminist and European. The author, Julia Gasper, signed copies of the book and gave a short talk about Elizabeth Craven and her links to Benham, where she lived, wrote, welcomed many famous guests and staged some of her own plays as well as other theatrical performances.  Craven was not just bold and adventurous in her travels, but also in her opinions, which were in some ways far ahead of her time. The event was held by kind permission of the present owner, Mr Michael Fresson, who has meticulously restored the once-neglected mansion to its former beauty and splendour. Benham was designed by the distinguished architect Henry Holland, and its grounds landscaped by Capability Brown. The grounds still contain a Greek theatre built...

Elizabeth Craven had four daughters and three sons. The girls were named Elizabeth, Maria-Margaretta, Georgiana and Arabella, and of the four of them Maria was certainly the most socially successful.   The Hon. Maria Margaretta Craven, later Lady Sefton. She was popular and after making a brilliant marriage became one of the patronesses of the celebrated Almack's Club, whose balls at Almack's Assembly Rooms were more exclusive than the Court itself.  This miniature portrait shows Lady Sefton when young and she is a striking beauty, with some resemblance to her mother in the long neck and shape of the nose. Her hair appears to be very black, but in fact she is wearing a headband of black lace, and a black-trimmed stole, suggesting that she is in mourning. When you look closely her hair is actually chestnut brown, not unlike her mother's.      The girls had rather a difficult time as teenagers as their parents separated, and the girls were ...

The writer Elizabeth Craven had seven children while she was married to her first husband, William, Lord Craven. This group portrait shows six of them, and is dated 1777. They are standing in front of an archway of classical design, through which a landscaped park can be seen. It may be that of Benham Place, in Berkshire, where Capability Brown had just landscaped the park for Lord Craven. The painting was in the Craven family collection until sold by Sotheby's in 2013 for only £25,000, which sounds like a bargain to me. Four of the children are standing, one is sitting on a woman's lap and the youngest of all is a baby in the arms of another woman, at the back of the picture.      But which child is which? And who are the women holding the youngest ones? Certainly neither is Elizabeth Craven.     One identification is easy.  The boy in the greenish-blue jacket and yellow waistcoat, with a dog at his side, is Elizabeth Craven's eldest son, William, who l...

Author Julia Gasper An interview by Jolanta Ryba  from Oxford Prospect This Question and Answer interview with the well-known historian and  Oxford biographer Julia Gasper , about her latest book, a biography of  Elizabeth Craven . 1. How different was this book about Elizabeth Craven from your previous books? Actually, it was very different, because this is the first time I have written about an English person, and the first time I have written about a woman. Both my previous biographies were of men, and foreign subjects – King Theodore of Corsica, and the  Marquis d’Argens . Having said that,  Elizabeth Craven  is still a very Continental Englishwoman, and I still had to use sources in French and write about places in Germany or further afield. 2. What encouraged you to write about her? Well, I came across her when I was doing the research for my last book about the  Marquis  d’Argens. He ...

                         Elizabeth Craven from a drawing published in 1804. Elizabeth Craven is an important feminist writer of the late Georgian period whose works are not easy to access.  Some of the best have never been reprinted. Others were written in French and have never before been translated into English. This new edition with introduction and explanatory  notes, includes a complete translation of one of her best and most entertaining plays, The Modern Philosopher . Title page of the original edition  It also includes Letters to Her Son, a book in which she protested against unfair laws of marriage, and Verses on the Siege of Gibraltar, an example of her satirical writing. The Modern Philosopher and Other Works by Elizabeth Craven, translated and edited by Julia Gasper. Published by Cambridge Scholars Press, 2017. http://www.cambridgescholars.com/the-modern-philosop...