Messrs. Roberts Brothers' Publications.

Famous Women Series.

MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT.

BY

ELIZABETH ROBINS PENNELL.

One volume. 16mo. Cloth. Price $1.00.

"So far as it has been published, and it has now reached its ninth volume, the Famous Women Series is rather better on the whole than the English Men of Letters Series. One had but to recall the names and characteristics of some of the women with whom it deals,—literary women, like Maria Edgeworth, Margaret Fuller, Mary Lamb, Emily Brontë, George Eliot, and George Sand; women of the world (not to mention the other parties in that well-known Scriptural firm), like the naughty but fascinating Countess of Albany; and women of philanthropy, of which the only example given here so far is Mrs. Elizabeth Fry,—one has but to compare the intellectual qualities of the majority of English men of letters to perceive that the former are the most difficult to handle, and that a series of which they are the heroines is, if successful, a remarkable collection of biographies. We thought so as we read Miss Blind's study of George Sand, and Vernon Lee's study of the Countess of Albany, and we think so now that we have read Mrs. Elizabeth Robins Pennell's study of Mary Wollstonecraft, who, with all her faults, was an honor to her sex. She was not so considered while she lived, except by those who knew her well, nor for years after her death; but she is so considered now, even by the granddaughters of the good ladies who so bitterly condemned her when the century was new. She was notable for the sacrifices that she made for her worthless father and her weak, inefficient sisters, for her dogged persistence and untiring industry, and for her independence and her courage. The soul of goodness was in her, though she would be herself and go on her own way; and if she loved not wisely, according to the world's creed, she loved too well for her own happiness, and paid the penalty of suffering. What she might have been if she had not met Capt. Gilbert Imlay, who was a scoundrel, and William Godwin, who was a philosopher, can only be conjectured. She was a force in literature and in the enfranchisement of her sisterhood, and as such was worthy of the remembrance which she will long retain through Mrs. Pennell's able memoir."—R. H. Stoddard, in the Mail and Express.

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HARRIET MARTINEAU.

By Mrs. F. FENWICK MILLER.

16mo. Cloth. Price $1.00.

"The almost uniform excellence of the 'Famous Women' series is well sustained in Mrs. Fenwick Miller's life of Harriet Martineau, the latest addition to this little library of biography. Indeed, we are disposed to rank it as the best of the lot. The subject is an entertaining one, and Mrs. Miller has done her work admirably. Miss Martineau was a remarkable woman, in a century that has not been deficient in notable characters. Her native genius, and her perseverance in developing it; her trials and afflictions, and the determination with which she rose superior to them; her conscientious adherence to principle, and the important place which her writings hold in the political and educational literature of her day,—all combine to make the story of her life one of exceptional interest.... With the exception, possibly, of George Eliot, Harriet Martineau was the greatest of English women. She was a poet and a novelist, but not as such did she make good her title to distinction. Much more noteworthy were her achievements in other lines of thought, not usually essayed by women. She was eminent as a political economist, a theologian, a journalist, and a historian.... But to attempt a mere outline of her life and works is out of the question in our limited space. Her biography should be read by all in search of entertainment."—Professor Woods in Saturday Mirror.

"The present volume has already shared the fate of several of the recent biographies of the distinguished dead, and has been well advertised by the public contradiction of more or less important points in the relation by the living friends of the dead genius. One of Mrs. Miller's chief concerns in writing this life seems to have been to redeem the character of Harriet Martineau from the appearance of hardness and unamiability with which her own autobiography impresses the reader.... Mrs. Miller, however, succeeds in this volume in showing us an altogether different side to her character,—a home-loving, neighborly, bright-natured, tender-hearted, witty, lovable, and altogether womanly woman, as well as the clear thinker, the philosophical reasoner, and comprehensive writer whom we already knew."—The Index.

"Already ten volumes in this library are published; namely, George Eliot, Emily Brontë, George Sand, Mary Lamb, Margaret Fuller, Maria Edgeworth, Elizabeth Fry, The Countess of Albany, Mary Wollstonecraft, and the present volume. Surely a galaxy of wit and wealth of no mean order! Miss M. will rank with any of them in womanliness or gifts or grace. At home or abroad, in public or private. She was noble and true, and her life stands confessed a success. True, she was literary, but she was a home lover and home builder. She never lost the higher aims and ends of life, no matter how flattering her success. This whole series ought to be read by the young ladies of to-day. More of such biography would prove highly beneficial."—Troy Telegram.

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RACHEL.

By Mrs. NINA H. KENNARD.

One Volume. 16mo. Cloth. Price, $1.00.

"Rachel, by Nina H. Kennard, is an interesting sketch of the famous woman whose passion and genius won for her an almost unrivalled fame as an actress. The story of Rachel's career is of the most brilliant success in art and of the most pathetic failure in character. Her faults, many and grievous, are overlooked in this volume, and the better aspects of her nature and history are recorded."—Hartford Courant.

"The book is well planned, has been carefully constructed, and is pleasantly written."—The Critic.

"The life of Mlle. Élisa Rachel Félix has never been adequately told, and the appearance of her biography in the 'Famous Women Series' of Messrs. Roberts Brothers will be welcomed.... Yet we must be glad the book is written, and welcome it to a place among the minor biographies; and because there is nothing else so good, the volume is indispensable to library and study."—Boston Evening Traveller.

"Another life of the great actress Rachel has been written. It forms part of the 'Famous Women Series,' which that firm is now bringing out, and which already includes eleven volumes. Mrs. Kennard deals with her subject much more amiably than one or two of the other biographers have done. She has none of those vindictive feelings which are so obvious in Madame B.'s narrative of the great tragedienne. On the contrary, she wants to be fair, and she probably is as fair as the materials which came into her possession enabled her to be. The endeavor has been made to show us Rachel as she really was, by relying to a great extent upon her letters.... A good many stories that we are familiar with are repeated, and some are contradicted. From first to last, however, the sympathy of the author is ardent, whether she recounts the misery of Rachel's childhood, or the splendid altitude to which she climbed when her name echoed through the world and the great ones of the earth vied in doing her homage. On this account Mrs. Kennard's book is a welcome addition to the pre-existing biographies of one of the greatest actresses the world ever saw."—N.Y. Evening Telegram.

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MADAME ROLAND.

By MATHILDE BLIND,

AUTHOR OF "GEORGE ELIOT'S LIFE."

One volume. 16mo. Cloth. Price, $1.00.

"Of all the interesting biographies published in the Famous Women Series, Mathilde Blind's life of Mme. Roland is by far the most fascinating.... But no one can read Mme. Roland's thrilling story, and no one can study the character of this noble, heroic woman without feeling certain that it is good for the world to have every incident of her life brought again before the public eye. Among the famous women who have been enjoying a new birth through this set of short biographies, no single one has been worthy of the adjective great until we come to Mme. Roland....

"We see a brilliant intellectual woman in Mme. Roland; we see a dutiful daughter and devoted wife; we see a woman going forth bravely to place her neck under the guillotine,—a woman who had been known as the 'Soul of the Girondins;' and we see a woman struggling with and not being overcome by an intense and passionate love. Has history a more heroic picture to present us with? Is there any woman more deserving of the adjective 'great'?

"Mathilde Blind has had rich materials from which to draw for Mme. Roland's biography. She writes graphically, and describes some of the terrible scenes in the French Revolution with great picturesqueness. The writer's sympathy with Mme. Roland and her enthusiasm is very contagious; and we follow her record almost breathlessly, and with intense feeling turn over the last few pages of this little volume. No one can doubt that this life was worth the writing, and even earnest students of the French Revolution will be glad to refresh their memories of Lamartine's 'History of the Girondins,' and again have brought vividly before them the terrible tragedy of Mme. Roland's life and death."—Boston Evening Transcript.

"The thrilling story of Madame Roland's genius, nobility, self-sacrifice, and death loses nothing in its retelling here. The material has been collected and arranged in an unbroken and skilfully narrated sketch, each picturesque or exciting incident being brought out into a strong light The book is one of the best in an excellent series."—Christian Union.

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Footnotes

  [1] Household Education, p. 202.

  [2] Household Education, p. 286.

  [3] Mr. H. G. Atkinson writes to me: "She had written much more at length (than is published) in her Autobiography about her courtship; but she consulted me about publishing it, and I advised her not to do so—the matter counted for so little in such a life as hers." The quotation which I give here shows for what it did really count in the history of her mental development. But so difficult must it needs be for the writer of an autobiography to speak frankly of the more sacred experiences of the life, that it is not surprising that Harriet Martineau "destroyed what she had written," when so advised by the friend whom she consulted. I need only add that the many new details about the facts of this matter, which I am able to give, I have received from two of her own generation, both of whom were very intimate friends of hers at the time when all this occurred.

  [4] Illustrations of Political Economy: "A Tale of the Tyne," pp. 54, et seq. This passage is doubly interesting from the fact that Mr. Malthus, the discoverer of the Population Law, sent specially to thank her for having written it.

  [5] Harriet Martineau's History of the Peace, book ii, p. 8.

  [6] "I should think there never was such an industrious lady," said the maid who was with her for the last eleven years of her life; "when I caught sight of her, just once, leaning back in her chair, with her arms hanging down, and looking as though she wasn't even thinking about anything, it gave me quite a turn. I felt she must be ill to sit like that!"

  [7] In the same number, by the way, appeared the notorious biting and sarcastic notice of Tennyson's second volume. It is a distinction, indeed, for a critical review, that one number should have devoted half its space to violently unfavorable criticisms of Alfred Tennyson's poetry and Harriet Martineau's political economy.

  [8] How to Observe, p. 204.

  [9] Life in the Sick-Room.

[10] Diary and Letters of H. C. Robinson, vol. iii., p. 235.

[11] This and the succeeding quotations are from her "Letters on Mesmerism," published in the Athenæum, 1845.

[12] As this friendship had a profound influence upon Harriet's after thought and work, some description of Mr. Atkinson seems in place; and I need offer that gentleman no apology for merely quoting what has appeared in print before about him. Margaret Fuller wrote thus of him in a private letter, in 1846:—

"Mr. Atkinson is a man about thirty, in the fullness of his powers, tall and finely formed, with a head for Leonardo to paint; mild and composed, but powerful and sagacious; he does not think, but perceives and acts. He is intimate with artists, having studied architecture himself as a profession; but has some fortune on which he lives. Sometimes stationary and acting in the affairs of other men; sometimes wandering about the world and learning; he seems bound by no tie, yet looks as if he had relatives in every place."—Memoirs of Margaret Fuller, by Emerson.

[13] I find there is a widespread impression that she eventually died of the same tumor that she supposed to have been cured at this time. It should be distinctly stated, however, that if this were the case, Mr. Greenhow and Sir C. Clarke were both utterly wrong in their diagnosis in 1840. I have read Mr. Greenhow's Report of the Case of Miss H. M., and the notes of the post-mortem lie before me—kindly lent me by the surgeon, Mr. King, now of Bedford Park, who made the autopsy. I find that the organ which Mr. Greenhow and his consultant both stated to be the seat of the disease, enlargement and tumor, in 1840, is described as being found "particularly small and unaffected" after death.

[14] Henry Crabbe Robinson writes to Miss Fenwick on January 15, 1849:—

"Miss Martineau makes herself an object of envy by the success of her domestic arrangements.... Mrs. Wordsworth declares she is a model in her household economy, making her servants happy, and setting an example of activity to her neighbors."

[15] In speaking of her eloquent writings I refer specially to the History of the Peace; and I have seen the manuscript of this, bearing evidence that the hand could not keep pace with the flow of words and thoughts.

[16] Health, Husbandry and Handicraft, p. 269, "Our Farm of Two Acres."

[17] Athenæum, March, 31st, 1849.

[18] It is right that I should say that I alone am responsible for the above (necessarily imperfect) digest of the contents of the book. I at first thought of asking Mr. Atkinson to do me the favor of reading my account of his work in proof; but I ultimately concluded that it would be better that in this instance, as in the case of all Harriet Martineau's other books, I myself should be wholly responsible to the public for my own substantial accuracy and fairness.

[19] "Barry Cornwall."

[20] Health, Husbandry and Handicraft.

[21] It may be mentioned that a similar plea was made to her by the Crown Prince Oscar of Sweden, who desired her aid in preparing his people for constitutional reform; and again, at a later date, by Count Porro, of Milan, who begged that she would let the world know what was the condition of Italy under Austrian rule.

[22] Future Government of India, p. 94.

[23] Most of these papers are signed "From the Mountain."

[24] The highest honor yet done to her memory is the work of our sisters and brothers across the Atlantic. A public subscription has raised funds for a statue of Harriet Martineau, which has been executed by Anne Whitney, in white marble. The statue represents Mrs. Martineau seated, with her hands folded over a manuscript on her knees. The head is raised, and has a light veil thrown over the back of it and falling down upon the shoulders, while a shawl is draped partially over the figure. The eyes are looking forth, as though in that thoughtful questioning of the future to which she often gave herself. The statue was unveiled in the Old South Hall, Boston, December 26th, 1883, in the presence of many notable personages. Mrs. Mary Livermore presided, and speeches were made by William Lloyd Garrison, Jun., and Wendell Phillips, in the case of the last-named it was his final speech, for he, too, six weeks after, was numbered amongst those who are at rest. "The audience sat in silence for a moment as the white vision was unveiled; then went up such applause as stirred the echoes of the historic interior in which the ceremony took place."

[25] Refuting a statement made in Lord Brougham's Autobiography that her father had failed in business.