Mary Louisa Molesworth
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Mary Louisa Molesworth (May 29, 1839 - January 20, 1921), Scottish writer, daughter of Major-General Stewart, of Strath, NB, was born in Rotterdam.
She was educated in Great Britain and abroad. In 1861 Miss Stewart married Major R Molesworth. Her first novels, Lover and Husband (1869) to Cicely (1874), appeared under the pseudonym of "Ennis Graham."
"Mary Louisa Molesworth typified late Victorian writing for girls. Aimed at girls too old for fairies and princesses but too young for Austen and the Brontës, books by Molesworth had their share of amusement, but they also had a good deal of moral instruction. The girls reading Molesworth would grow up to be mothers; thus, the books emphasized Victorian notions of duty and self-sacrifice."
Typical of the time, her young child characters often use a lisping style, and words may be mis-spelt to represent children's speech - 'jography' for geography for instance.
Mrs Molesworth is best known as a writer of books for the young, such as Tell Me a Story (1875), Carrots (1876), The Cuckoo Clock (1877), and The Tapestry Room (1879).
A new and handsome edition of The Cuckoo Clock was published in 1914.
[edit] Biography
Mrs. Molesworth: A Biography by Jane Cooper (2002)
[edit] External links
- partial list of works and publication dates
- Griselda's big adventures
- Works by Mary Louisa Molesworth at Project Gutenberg
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
