Jane Welsh Carlyle: And Her Victorian World

(Hardback)

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Hailed by Virginia Woolf and many others as the all-time great letter writer, Jane Welsh Carlyle, wife of Thomas Carlyle, is not as well known today as she should be. In this compelling new biography for the general reader, Kathy Chamberlain brings Jane out of her husbands shadow, revealing her to be a remarkable woman and writer in her own right. Caught between her literary aspirations and Victorian societys oppression of women, Jane Welsh Carlyle hoped to move beyond domestic life and become a respected published writer. As she and her husband moved in exclusive London literary circles, mingling with noted authors, poets, and European revolutionaries, Carlyle reported to her correspondents on her rich, rewarding life in her Chelsea home until her husbands infatuation with a wealthy aristocratic hostess threw her life into turmoil. Through in-depth research and unparalleled access to Jane Welsh Carlyles private correspondence, Kathy Chamberlain has created an elegant portrait of an extraordinary writer.

Reviews

`We can meet this witty, highly intelligent, sprightly, and politically aware woman everything that Jane was in Kathy Chamberlains engagingly written biography * Deirdre Bair, biographer of Samuel Beckett *
`Compelling, readable, and utterly distinct in its approach You will be captivated * Elizabeth Strout, author of My Name is Lucy Barton *

Author Bio

Kathy Chamberlain has lectured on Jane Welsh Carlyle at the CUNY Graduate Center and at conferences in the US and UK, and has published numerous essays about Jane Welsh Carlyle and Virginia Woolf, writing reviews for the Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain.