Elizabeth Bonhôte, née Mapes (1744-1818) was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 novelist and essayist http://extra.shu.ac.uk/corvey/database/authors/datab/bonhote/aabonhot/bonhobio.htm.

She was born Elizabeth Mapes in Bungay

Bungay, Suffolk

Bungay is a market town in the English county of Suffolk. It lies in the Waveney valley, west of Beccles on the edge of The Broads, and at the neck of a meander of the River Waveney.-Early history:...

, Suffolk

Suffolk

Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...

 in 1744 and married one Daniel Bonhote, a member of the local gentry, by whom she bore two daughters. She wrote several elegies and poems in praise of the monarchy before writing her first novel The Rambles of Mr Frankly in 1772. She wrote several more, including The Fashionable Friend in 1773, Hortensia; or The Distressed Wife, in 1777, and Olivia; or The Deserted Bride the following year. She wrote a book of parental advice in 1788, The Parental Monitor which covered subjects such as "Modesty, Happiness, Gratitude, the Importance of time, Dress and fashion, Ambition, Temperance, Pride, Politeness, Conduct to Servants, [and] Death".

She wrote perhaps her most enduring work, Bungay Castle

Bungay Castle (novel)

Bungay Castle is a gothic novel by Elizabeth Bonhôte. It was first published in 1796 and follows the fortunes of the De Morney family at Bungay Castle in Suffolk . Two young members of the family, Roseline and Edwin, search for the source of strange, unearthly cries and discover a terrifying...

in 1796. It was published by the sensationalist Minerva Press

Minerva Press

Minerva Press was a publishing house, noted for creating a lucrative market in sentimental and Gothic fiction in the late 18th century and early 19th century...

 as were several other gothic novels of the time. She wrote a few poems after that date before she died in the town of her birth in July 1818.

Works

• Hortensia, or, The Distressed Wife (1769, published anonymously)
• The Rambles of Mr Frankly, Published by his Sister (1772)
• Olivia, or, The Deserted Bride (1787)
• The Parental Monitor (1788, 2 vols, published by subscription)
• Darnley Vale, or, Emelia Fitzroy (1789)
• Ellen Woodley (1790)
• Bungay Castle
  Bungay Castle (novel)
  Bungay Castle is a gothic novel by Elizabeth Bonhôte. It was first published in 1796 and follows the fortunes of the De Morney family at Bungay Castle in Suffolk . Two young members of the family, Roseline and Edwin, search for the source of strange, unearthly cries and discover a terrifying...
  
  (1796). Recently republished by Zittaw Press
• Feeling, or, Sketches from Life: a Desultory Poem (1810, published anonymously)

External links

• Christopher Reeve, ‘Bonhôte , Elizabeth (1744–1818)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 13 Nov 2006
• Corvey Women Writers on the web: Elizabeth Bonhote 1744-1818