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Harriet Martineau (1802–1876)

Author of Deerbrook

110+ Works 751 Members 17 Reviews 1 Favorited

About the Author

Martineau, from a devout and strict Unitarian family in Norwich, was born without the sense either of taste or of smell and, by the age of 12, showed signs of severe deafness. Throughout the early years of her life, she battled poverty and illness. At her mother's insistence, Martineau was show more educated, at first at home by her brothers and then for a short time at school. Because her loss of hearing became worse, she was sent home. Within a space of about three years during the late 1820's, Martineau's favorite brother, Thomas, died; her father lost his fortune and died; and her fiance became insane and died. By 1829, the last of the family money was gone, and she was reduced to helping support her mother and sisters with her needlework. At about this time, she began to review for the Unitarian periodical The Monthly Repository and in 1831 won all three prizes in the magazine's contest for the best essays on the conversion of Catholics, Jews, and Muslims. During 1832-33,she published the tales "Illustrations of Political Economy" and its sequel, "Poor Laws and Paupers," in monthly parts. Despite their pointed didacticism, the works were a tremendous success. Other works of fiction followed. In 1839, she published her first novel, "Deerbrook," and, three years later, her fictionalized biography of Toussaint L'Ouverture, "The Hour and the Man," appeared. Despite her forays into fiction, however, Martineau is better known today for her historical, political, and philosophical writings. Early in her career, she was influenced by the classical economies of David Ricardo and Thomas Malthus. She was friends with Edwin Chadwick and James Kay-Shuttleworth, and acquainted with John Stuart Mill. A strong, often radical proponent of utilitarian reform, early in her career she wrote a number of instructive texts that advocated the same curriculum for men and women. By the mid 1840's, Martineau had completely thrown off her Unitarianism and in 1851, published her antitheological "Laws of Man's Social Nature." Some good work has been done on Martineau's life and writings, especially on the political aspects of her public life. Books on Martineau as a literary artist are scarcer; Deirdre David's "Intellectual Women and Victorian Patriarchy" (1987) contains an excellent discussion of Martineau, and Valerie Sanders's "Reason over Passion" (1986) discusses Martineau as a novelist. One of the most insightful books on Martineau, and one of the most readable, is her own Autobiography (1877). (Bowker Author Biography) show less

Works by Harriet Martineau

Deerbrook (1839) 232 copies
Harriet Martineau on women (1984) 22 copies
Autobiography (2006) 21 copies
Autobiography, Vol. 2 (1982) 20 copies
Autobiography, Vol. 1 (1983) 19 copies
The peasant and the prince (2008) 14 copies
The Crofton Boys (1841) 12 copies
Household Education (2011) 8 copies
Biographical Sketches (1869) 7 copies
Letters From Ireland (2001) 5 copies
The Settlers at Home (2008) 5 copies
The Billow and the Rock (2012) 3 copies
Ella of Garveloch (2013) 3 copies
Brooke y la granja Brooke (2014) 3 copies
Miscellanies (1975) 3 copies
La colina y el valle (2013) 2 copies
Ireland : a tale (1979) 2 copies
Eastern Life (2013) 1 copy
Demerara (2014) 1 copy
Our farm of two acres (2017) 1 copy
[Works] 1 copy

Associated Works

Coleridge's Poetry and Prose [Norton Critical Edition] (2003) — Contributor — 198 copies
The Portable Victorian Reader (1972) — Contributor — 176 copies
The Penguin Book of Women's Humour (1996) — Contributor — 117 copies
The Positive Philosophy of Auguste Comte (1896) — Translator, some editions — 31 copies
Famous Stories of Five Centuries (1934) — Contributor — 4 copies

Tagged

Common Knowledge

Canonical name
Martineau, Harriet
Birthdate
1802-06-12
Date of death
1876-06-27
Burial location
Key Hill Cemetery, Hockley, Birmingham, England
Gender
female
Nationality
UK
Birthplace
Norwich, Norfolk, England, UK
Place of death
Ambleside, Cumbria, England, UK
Places of residence
Norwich, England, UK (Birth)
London, England, UK
Tynemouth, England, UK
Ambleside, Cumbria, England, UK (Death)
Occupations
essayist
novelist
translator
Sociologist
Philosopher
social theorist (show all 7)
autobiographer
Relationships
Martineau, James (brother)
Carpenter, Lant (teacher, minister)
Darwin, Erasmus (lover)
Caldwell, Anne Marsh (friend)
Chapman, Maria Weston (friend)
Kirkland, Caroline M. (friend)
Organizations
American Abolitionist Party
Short biography
Harriet Martineau was born in Norwich, England, to a family of French Huguenot origins. Her progressive parents saw to it that all their children were well and equally educated. She published some devotional works anonymously as a teenager, but was forced into selling needlepoint and hack writing to help support her family after her father's business failure and death. She went on to produce reviews, short stories, and essays. She developed increasing deafness, which she described as "very noticeable, very inconvenient, and excessively painful." In 1832, she began publishing a series of articles on political economy, which proved to be an immediate and enormous success. She became one of the most widely admired writers of her day. Today she is considered one of the first female sociologists. Harriet Martineau spent the years 1834 to 1836 in the USA, where she joined the abolitionist movement, the first of several radical causes she would champion. Her autobiography was published posthumously in two volumes in 1877.

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Group read: Deerbrook by Harriet Martineau in Virago Modern Classics (February 2017)

Reviews

I read these over the last couple weeks and wasn't super impressed with most of them. I think I could have liked the Gaskell one but kept falling asleep due to sheer exhaustion of the holidays. Perhaps that would have been the case with the others, too, had I tried a little harder to stay awake! Most of these are not centered around Christmas so can actually be enjoyed any time of year without needed to be in the "Christmas spirit". I'll give it another go in later years, I'm sure.
 
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classyhomemaker | Dec 11, 2023 |
This story made me want to bang my head against a desk repeatedly. I give it two stars for what it could have been, because there were some good bones to the story and I somewhat liked some of the characters.
But.
It was so. so. so. so. long. It started out fine. Even about halfway through it seemed like things could be ok. But by the time I was three-quarters of the way through, the slanderous, vile harpy of the neighborhood was getting so exhausting and causing so much stupid, stupid misery that I just started flipping pages to get to the end. And at the end there was a horrific pandemic that positively buries the town in coffins. So.

*sighs*

Let's all go read some fluff.




*Sorry, not sorry about the spoiler. This is 2020 and I think we all deserve fair warning about books that end with pandemics that bury the town in coffins.
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Alishadt | 11 other reviews | Feb 25, 2023 |
An Englishwoman, Harriet Martineau (1802-1876) throughout her life wrote on "the woman question" which was the 19th century term for feminism. Ms. Yates wrote a general introduction on Ms. Martineau's life and views, and then provided examples of Ms. Martineau's writings under the categories of: women's equal rights, women's education, American women (Ms. Martineau spent two years touring America and then wrote about it with special reference to antislavery and to women), portraits of women (Charlotte Bronte, Margaret Fuller, and Florence Nightingale plus women in hareems and women in Ireland), on economic, social, and political issues (including working women and women and divorce), and women's campaign against the Contagious Diseases Acts of 1866 and 1869, which allowed police to arrest any woman they expected to be prostitutes. Ms. Yates wrote introductions to each section in which she explained the content and significant of the documents included in the section. Her explaining the content made reading the documents themselves rather repetitious.

An important addition to the literature on 19th century feminism.
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sallylou61 | Jan 29, 2018 |
Deerbrook reminded me of a 19th century soap opera. Like Dallas or Dynasty, there are rival families (or, at least, rival women) who use local gossip to promote themselves and denigrate their rivals. The arrival of the Grey's city cousins, Hester and Margaret, provides new fodder for the local gossip mill. It doesn't take long for the two most eligible bachelors, physician Edward Hope and law student Philip Enderby, to seek out the sisters' company. The gossips assume that men will naturally prefer the beautiful elder sister, Hester, but both men are attracted more by Margaret's personality. This will lead to worlds of trouble, particularly since Mr. Enderby is the brother of Mrs. Grey's social rival, Mrs. Rowland. Mrs. Rowland has other plans for her brother.

The novel's main purpose is didactic, and the entertainment value is secondary to this purpose. Also, Margaret may come across as a Mary Sue to modern readers. However, many of the issues raised in the novel are still problems today. What are unsubstantiated rumors or false reports if not “fake news”? And don't we still see people shunned and businesses boycotted because they voted for a candidate that others don't like, even when that candidate won the election? This novel will still speak to today's readers who are willing to tolerate the heavy-handed dialogue.
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1 vote
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cbl_tn | 11 other reviews | Jan 18, 2017 |

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Works
110
Also by
5
Members
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Popularity
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Rating
½ 3.6
Reviews
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ISBNs
228
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Favorited
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