Letters and Lives of the Tennyson Women

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Contradicting common perception of them as mere footnotes in Tennyson's career, this book examines the influence of his strong-minded female forebears on the young poet and reveals that the women in Tennysons family circle were prolific and engaging correspondents. Their letters, preserved in archives in Lincoln and for the most part unpublished, cast a unique light on the Tennyson familys interrelationships and the times in which they lived. Focusing on the letters and lives of four Tennyson women the poets paternal grandmother, Mary Tennyson (1753-1825), her daughters Elizabeth Russell (1776-1865) and Mary Bourne (1777-1864), and her daughter-in-law Frances Tennyson, later Tennyson dEyncourt (1787-1878) - this book includes extensive and annotated extracts from the womens letters, linked by narrative passages providing context and continuity. The case studies cover six decades, from the marriage of Mary Turner and George Tennyson in 1775 to the death of George Tennyson in 1835, with brief Afterwords touching on the womens final years.

Reviews

Letters and Lives of the Tennyson Women is the result of rigorous and painstaking scholarship. The editors prudently retain the period's variable spellings and grammar, and provide informative commentaries to connect the letters. -- Dinah Roe * The Times Literary Supplement *
A major contribution to Tennyson studies ... expanding what we know of the biographical influences upon Tennyson's work, whilst simultaneously allowing the poet's talented and resourceful female relations to speak for themselves. * British Association of Victorian Studies *
This eagerly awaited book draws on the extensive archive of Tennyson family letters housed in the County Archives in Lincoln ... well-written and very readable, this book has a wider interest than simply for Tennysonian studies. The letters ... for the most part unpublished, cast a unique light of the Tennsyon family's interrelationships and the times and society in which they lived. -- Jean Howard * The Tennyson Research Bulletin *
The fact that this book is so well grounded in unexplored primary material makes it highly original and will guarantee its value to those interested in the history of Lincolnshire or the life of Alfred Tennyson and his family. * Lincolnshire Past and Present *

Author Bio

Marion Sherwood is an independent scholar based in the UK. She completed a PhD on Tennyson with the Open University in 2011. Tennyson and the Fabrication of Englishness was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2013. She has also published articles in the Tennyson Research Bulletin and is a member of the Tennyson Society Executive Committee Rosalind Boyce is a retired librarian and indexer. She published Forever Young: Harold Tennyson RN, the Poet's Grandson, a Tennyson Society Occasional Paper in 2013, and has published articles on Lincolnshire local history. She is Assistant Honorary Secretary of the Tennyson Society and Honorary Secretary of its Publications Board.