Jane Harrison was born on Sept. 9, 1850 in Nottinghamshire, Yorkshire. She was raised by a devout evangelical stepmother (her mother having died shortly after her birth) and educated by an assortment of governesses until sent to Cheltenham College for Ladies at the age of seventeen. She later described Cheltenham as an “abyss of fatuous prudery into which the girls’ schools of the middle Victorian period – even the very best – had fallen” (Reminiscences 321). Nonetheless, she won a scholarship to Newnham, the recently (1871) established Cambridge Women’s College in 1874. Leaving Cambridge with high grades, but no degree in 1879 (women were not granted degrees at Cambridge until 1948), …
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Citation: Surette, Leon. "Jane Harrison". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 28 August 2018 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2000, accessed 26 November 2024.]