Eliza Lynn Linton

Eliza Lynn Linton (1822‑1898), was a British novelist, essayist, and journalist.

Life

The daughter of a clergyman and granddaughter of a bishop of Carlisle, she arrived in London in 1845 as the protegé of poet Walter Savage Landor. In the following year she produced her first novel, "Azeth, the Egyptian; Amymone" (1848), and "Realities" (1851), followed. None of these had any great success, and she became a journalist, joining the staff of the "Morning Chronicle", and "All the Year Round".

In 1858 she married W. J. Linton, an eminent wood-engraver, who was also a poet of some note, a writer upon his craft, and a Chartist agitator. In 1867 they separated in a friendly way, the husband going to America, and the wife returning to writing novels, in which she finally attained wide popularity. Her most successful works were "The True History of Joshua Davidson" (1872), "Patricia Kemball" (1874), and "Christopher Kirkland".

She was also a severe critic of the "New Woman." Her most famous essay on this subject, "The Girl of the Period," was published in "Saturday Review" in 1868 and was a vehement attack on feminism. Her obituary in "The Times" noted her "animosity towards all, or rather, some of those facets which may be conveniently called the 'New Woman'," but added that "it would perhaps be difficult to reduce Mrs. Lynn Linton's views on what was and what was not desirable for her own sex to a logical and connected form."

Works

Novels published by Piccadilly Novels include:

Patricia Kemball ^{[http://www.archive.org/details/patricikemballno00lintuoft]}

Atonement of Leam Dundas.

The World Well Lost.

Under which Lord?

"My Love!"

Ione.

Paston Carew.
(Source: The Eulogy of Richard Jefferies)

[http://www.broadviewpress.com/bvbooksprintable.asp?BookID=527 Broadview Press] re-printed Linton's novel "The Rebel of the Family" in 2002.

References

*Judith Flanders, "Inside the Victorian Home: a Portrait of Domestic Life in Victorian England." (New York: W. W. Norton, 2004)
*A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature
*Herbert Van Thal, "Eliza Lynn Linton: The Girl of the Period: A Biography". (London; Boston : Allen and Unwin, 1979)