Jessie Fothergill

Jessie Fothergill
Born June 1851
Manchester
Died 28 July 1891
Bern
Nationality British
Genre Novelist

Jessie Fothergill (June 1851 – 28 July 1891) was a British novelist.

Life

Fothergill was born in Manchester, but she was bought up at a farmstead called Carr End in Wensleydale which had been in her father's family since the 17th century.[1] Fothergill and her sister Catherine were both to write novels.[2]

Her first two novels did not sell but her third novel The First Violin was very popular and made Fothergill's name. The story was written in Düsseldorf by Fothergill and it tells the story of an English girl who rejects the attentions of the rich farmer for the strange attractions of a German. The story was rejected by two publishers because it dealt with an affair by a married woman. The publishers thought this would not be well received but they were mistaken as considerable sales continued not only in Britain but also in the United States.[3] The story was released in serial form in Temple Bar magazine and as a three-volume novel.[4]

She travelled to Europe and to the United States being driven partially by a desire to avoid British weather as Fothergill's lungs had a medical condition.[2]

Fothergill is recognised today because her novels were agnostic about religion.[3] A present-day commentator writes: "Her novels often portrayed characters of dubious moral fibre, which proved popular with the reading public."[5]

Fothergill died in Bern on 28 July 1891.[6]

Works

  • Healey 1875, 1884
  • Aldyth 1876, 1877, 1891
  • The First Violin 1877, 1878, 1879
  • Probation 1879
  • The Wellfields 1880, 1881
  • Kith and Kin 1881, 1882
  • Made or Marred 1881 (Bentley's Empire Library)
  • One of Three 1881 (Bentley's Empire Library)
  • Peril, 1884
  • Borderland 1886, 1887
  • The Lasses of Leverhouse 1888
  • From Moor Isles, 1888, 1894
  • A March in the Ranks 1890, 1891
  • Oriole's Daughter 1893

References

  1. ↑ Crisp, Jane. "Jessie Fothergill". Victorian Secrets. Retrieved 12 October 2014.
  2. 1 2 Bertha Porter, ‘Fothergill, Jessie (1851–1891)’, rev. Rebecca Mills, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 13 Oct 2014
  3. 1 2 Boardman, Kay; Jones, Shirley, eds. (2004). Popular Victorian women writers (1. publ. ed.). Manchester [u.a.]: Manchester Univ. Press. p. 68. ISBN 0719064503. Retrieved 12 October 2014.
  4. ↑ Black, Helen C. (2011). Bassett, Troy J.; Pope, Catherine, eds. Notable women authors of the day (New ed.). Brighton: Victorian Secrets. p. 191. ISBN 1906469202. Retrieved 13 October 2014.
  5. ↑ Jarndyce Booksellers' catalogue Women Writers 1795–1927 Part I: A–F (London, Summer 2017).
  6. ↑  Porter, Bertha (1901). "Fothergill, Jessie". In Lee, Sidney. Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement​. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
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