Mariana Starke

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Mariana Starke (1761/2-1838) was an English author. She wrote plays and poetry, mainly early in her career, and while her plays had decent runs the reviews were mixed. Her later travel writing brought her considerably more success.

Starke's mother was Mary (née Hughes) and her father was Richard Starke, governor of Fort St George in Madras, where she spent her childhood, background that she used in her plays The Sword of Peace and The Widow of Malabar. Upon the family's return to England they settled in Surrey. Starke then lived in Italy for an extended period, between 1792 and 1798, in order to attend a sick relation, and this experience formed the basis for her later writing. Her travel guides went into several editions and were variously translated and pirated. John Murray, her publisher, launched the well-known travel series partially on the strength of her success.

Starke revisited Italy in 1817 – 19, and again in 1838, where she died at the age of seventy-eight.

Contents

[edit] Works

[edit] Plays

  • The British Orphan (unpublished; produced privately in 1791)
  • The Sword of Peace; or, a Voyage of Love (produced in London in 1788; Etext)
  • The Widow of Malabar. A tragedy in three acts (adaptation from La Veuve de Malabar by Le Mierre; produced in London in 1790)
  • The Tournament, a tragedy; imitated from the celebrated German drama, entitled Agnes Bernauer (produced in 1800)

[edit] Poetry

  • The Poor Soldier; an American tale: founded on a recent fact. (attributed; 2nd ed. London: Printed for J. Walter, 1789)
  • The Beauties of Carlo Maria Maggi, paraphrased: to which are added Sonnets, by Mariana Starke (1811)

[edit] Travel writing

  • Letters from Italy, between the years 1792 and 1798 containing a view of the Revolutions in that country (2 vols. London, 1800)
  • Travels on the Continent (1820)
  • Information and Directions for Travellers on the Continent (1824; expanded and republished as Travels in Europe for the use of Travelers on the Continent and likewise in the Island of Sicily, to which is added an account of the Remains of Ancient Italy in 1832)

[edit] References

  • Baigent, Elizabeth. “Starke, Mariana (1761/2 – 1838).” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. 6 Jan. 2007.
  • "Starke, Mariana, 1762?-1838." The Feminist Companion to Literature in English. Virginia Blain et al., eds. New Haven and London: Yale UP, 1990. 1023.

[edit] External links

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