Special Collections
Book of the Month, November 2008
Emilia Wyndham
Anne Marsh-Caldwell
London: H. Colburn, 1846
[S.L.] I [Marsh-Caldwell – 1846]
To the extent that Anne Marsh-Caldwell (1791-1874) is known at all today, it is probably as the friend of her fellow novelist Harriet Martineau. She is an obscure figure, ignored by standard reference works such as the Dictionary of Literary Biography and the Oxford Companion to English Literature. In her time, she would have been a household name. Novels poured from her pen, and The London Weekly Chronicle called her the ‘best lady novelist of the day’. Emilia Wyndham is probably her best-known novel; it was certainly singled out for mention in its creator’s obituaries in The Graphic and The Manchester Times (both 17 October 1874). It went through at least ten editions in the nineteenth century, some of which by the nature of the publisher or the series in which they appeared testified to its popularity: for example, by Simms & McIntyre as a yellowback (cheap mid-Victorian fiction in bright boards, sold cheaply at railway stalls); by Chapman and Hall; by the Leipzig publisher Tauchnitz in its series ‘Collection of British authors’; and by Frederick Warne in the series ‘Notable Novels’. Emilia Wyndham subsequently defined Anne Marsh-Caldwell, later reprints of earlier works and new novels alike being described on their title pages as ‘by the author of Emilia Wyndham’.
The story is summarised and evaluated in a review of the first edition in the Caledonian Mercury of 23 April 1846:
.. the narrative of a pure and high-minded woman, forced by circumstances of a painful nature into a position completely opposed to all her previous happiness; yet (through the exercise of true feminine principle) out of these conflicting elements creating the most perfect felicity for herself and those around her. We anticipate that the story of ‘Emilia Wyndham’ will be universally quoted as a book of that superior character which may be recommended to readers of all classes and of all ages, as one from the perusal of which it is impossible to rise without being as much improved by its morality as deeply touched by its sentiment.
The Daily News of 11 July 1846 was reserved about a lack of realism: ‘Principle and the sense of duty are to carry people through every chance, in spite of their very selves, their oversights, and their inconsistencies. Such is not the case in real life …’. Nonetheless, it considered Emilia Wyndham ‘well written and very interesting’. Not everyone criticized the triumph of duty over all vicissitudes: the reviewer in the Literary Examiner, in a long review including extracts from the text, praised it, admitted to being affected by it, claimed betterment through the emotion, and declared unequivocally: ‘Emilia Wyndham is a masterpiece.’
Senate House Library purchased the first edition in 2008 for the Sterling Library, a collection of first and fine editions of English literature.
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