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Amelia Beauclerc

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Amelia Beauclerc
Born(1790-01-01)1 January 1790
Died1 March 1820(1820-03-01) (aged 30)
Pen nameEmma de Lisle (misascribed)
OccupationNovelist
LanguageEnglish
Genre

Amelia Beauclerc (1 January 1790 – 1 March 1820) was a British Gothic novelist.

Title page of Amelia Beauclerc's Husband Hunters, 1816
Title page of Amelia Beauclerc's Husband Hunters!!! A Novel. Vol II. London: Minerva Press, A. K. Newman and Co., 1816 (Google Books)

Life

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Beauclerc's life has been described as "invisible."[1]

Writing

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It has taken time to establish a complete bibliography for Beauclerk.[2] Her first two novels, Eva of Cambria, or, The Fugitive Daughter (1810) and Ora and Juliet, or, Influence of First Principles (1811), were published by mistake under the name "Emma de Lisle," the nom de plume of another novelist, Emma Parker.[3] Beauclerc's next four novels were published "by the author of," but her final two novels were clearly published under her own name.

Six of Beauclerc's eight novels were published by the Minerva Press, famous for their sentimental and Gothic titles. Her interest was more in the former; one commentator called her novels "sham Gothic" because they focused more on sentiment than on more thrilling genre elements.[4] In this regard, Beauclerc followed the example of Ann Radcliffe and the tradition of the "female Gothic."

During her lifetime, Beauclearc received mixed reviews, from the utterly damning[5] to the moderately approving.[6] In the twentieth century, while some of her work has been called "predictably gothic, heavy-handed, or punatively moral" her "best work" has been judged "impressive, focusing on relations between the sexes."[7]

Works

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  • Eva of Cambria; or, The Fugitive Daughter. A Novel. In Three Volumes. By Emma de Lisle, author of the Soldier's Offspring, &c. &c. London: Minerva Press, A. K. Newman and Co., 1811.
  • Ora and Juliet; or, Influence of First Principles. A Novel. In Four Volumes. By the author of Eva of Cambria, &c. London: Minerva Press, A. K. Newman and Co., 1811.
  • Alinda; or, The Child of Mystery. A Novel. In Four Volumes. By the author of "Ora and Juliet, Castle of Tariffa, &c." London: Benjamin and Richard Crosby and Co., 1812.
  • The Castle of Tariffa; or, The Self-Banished Man. A Novel. In Four Volumes. By the Author of The Fugitive Daughter, or Eva of Cambria; Ora and Juliet, or Influence of First Principles. London: Benjamin and Richard Crosby and Co., 1812.
  • Montreithe; or, The Peer of Scotland. A Novel. In Four Volumes. London: Minerva Press, A. K. Newman and Co., 1814.
  • Husband Hunters!!! A Novel. In four volumes. By the author of Montreithe, or The Peer of Scotland. London: Minerva Press, A. K. Newman and Co., 1816.
  • The Deserter. A Novel. In Four Volumes. By Amelia Beauclerc, author of Montreithe, or The Peer of Scotland; Husband Hunters, &c. &c. London: Minerva Press, A. K. Newman and Co., 1817.
  • Disorder and Order. A Novel. In Three Volumes. By Amelia Beauclerc, Author of Montreithe, or the Peer of Scotland; Alinda, or Child of Mystery; the Deserter; Husband Hunters, &c. London: Minerva Press, A. K. Newman and Co., 1820.

Etexts

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  • The Deserter. A Novel. In Four Volumes. By Amelia Beauclerc, author of Montreithe, or The Peer of Scotland; Husband Hunters, &c. &c. London: Minerva Press, A. K. Newman and Co., 1817. (Google Books, Vols. 1&2, 3&4)
  • Disorder and Order. A Novel. In Three Volumes. By Amelia Beauclerc, Author of Montreithe, or the Peer of Scotland; Alinda, or Child of Mystery; the Deserter; Husband Hunters, &c. London: Minerva Press, A. K. Newman and Co., 1820. (Google Books, Vol. I, II, III)
  • Husband Hunters!!! A Novel. In four volumes. By the author of Montreithe, or The Peer of Scotland. London: Minerva Press, A. K. Newman and Co., 1816. (Google Books, Vol. I, II, III, IV)

Notes

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  1. ^ "Amelia Beauclerc." Orlando: Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present. Accessed 2022-07-14. (Orlando)
  2. ^ For example, see Summers, Montague. A Gothic bibliography. London: The Fortune Press, 1941, p. 8. (Internet Archive)
  3. ^ Grundy, Isobel. "Parker, Emma [pseud. Emma de Lisle] (fl. 1809–1817), novelist." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 23. Oxford University Press. Date of access 15 Jul. 2022; Halkett, Samuel. Dictionary of anonymous and pseudonymous English literature. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1926. (Internet Archive); Garside, Peter, et al. The English novel, 1770-1799. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2000, pp. 352–353.
  4. ^ Tymn, Marshall B., ed. Horror literature. NY/London: R.R. Bowker, 1981, pp. 41–42. (Internet Archive)
  5. ^ "The hero of this tale, is altogether so contemptible that we suppose the portrait was intended for a caricature but the execution is as wretched as the conception and if anything can be worse than the story, it is the language in which it is related." Rev. of Montriethe: Or, The Peer of Scotland in New Monthly Magazine Vol.2 (December 1814) p.444 (Covey)
  6. ^ "Although there is nothing very new in the Child of Mystery, it is nevertheless an interesting story, and well calculated to engage the attention of those persons who are fond of novel reading, to whom we think that it will prove an acquisition." Rev. of Alinda: The Child of Mystery, A Novel in the Critical Review Vol.4 (1813) pp. 305-313 (Covey)
  7. ^ Blain, Virginia, et al., eds. The Feminist companion to literature in English: women writers from the Middle Ages to the present. New Haven: Yale UP, 1990, 74. (Internet Archive)

Resources

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  • "Amelia Beauclerc 1811 - 1820." Accessed 2022-07-15. (Covey)
  • "Amelia Beauclerc." Orlando: Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present. Accessed 2022-07-14. (Orlando)
  • "Beauclerc, Amelia." The Women's Print History Project, 2019, Person ID 642. Accessed 2022-07-14. (WPHP)

See also

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