Mrs Humphry Ward, Marcella

Gisela Argyle (York University)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.07: English Writing and Culture of the Victorian Period, 1837-1901.
Vol. editors: Gillian Fenwick (University of Toronto), Grace Moore (University of Otago)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1894

Places

United Kingdom (Publication/ performance)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

Marcella (1894) is the third of Ward’s five originally bestselling and best-regarded novels, with Sir George Tressady (1896) its weaker sequel. The quick, cheap, one-volume reprint of Marcella ended the dominance in Britain of the expensive three-decker and the major lending libraries’ consequent near-monopoly and power of censorship (Sutherland, 1990, pp. 147-8). Like the previous two novels, Robert Elsmere and The History of David Grieve, Marcella is a bildungsroman, but this time about a female protagonist. Developing from aspiring Lady Bountiful in the country to socialist district nurse in London, to reformist bride of the leading aristocrat of the county, Marcella rehearses the c…

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1940 words

Citation: Argyle, Gisela. "Marcella". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 05 September 2013 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=3742, accessed 03 May 2024.]

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