Harriet Martineau, versatile woman of letters, philosopher, and economist, was at the heart of Victorian literary and social life. This is the first wide-ranging selection of her letters to a variety of correspondents, most of them major figures in Victorian political and literary history. Controversial because of Martineau's lifelong resistance to the future publication of her private correspondence, the letters reveal her outspoken views on contemporary writers, the working classes, women's role in society, political change, illness, mesmerism, and her own writing. Her opinions on literary realism and George Eliot, biography and Mrs Gaskell's Life of Charlotte Bronte, and Elizabeth Barrett's contribution to modern poetry are among the topics aired in these unashamedly forthright and often bigoted letters. Yet in her Autobiography, Harriet Martineau agrees with her friends `that it would be rather an advantage' to her than otherwise, to be known by her private letters. They allow the modern reader to enter fully into the spirit of Victorian social and literary controversy.
Reviews
`... excellently edited volume ... To revisit her neglected life is to find again, and to admire, not simply a didactic busybody, but a great Victorian reformer.' Anthony Everitt, Country Life
`She may have disliked writing letters, but she was a master of the art. There is not a dull one in this absorbing volume. It is admirably edited with an excellent introduction, chronology and biographical register.' Robert Blake, The Spectator
'this most comprehensive publication of her letters to date, compiled with the permission and approval of her family' Literary Review
'Sanders arranges her material artfully so as to form a chronicle of Martineau's life. The annotation is full, scholarly and unintrusive.' Times Literary Supplement
`There is not a dull [letter] in this absorbing volume. It is admirably edited, with an excellent introduction, chronology and biographical register.' The Indexer
`the first comprehensive collection to date' Bookdealer



Book Information
ISBN 9780198186045
Author Harriet Martineau
Format Hardback
Page Count 304
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 468g
Dimensions(mm) 221mm * 147mm * 22mm