Ella D'Arcy
Encyclopedia
D'Arcy was born in London in 1857; the precise date is unknown. One of nine children, she was educated in London and the Channel Islands
Channel Islands
The Channel Islands are an archipelago of British Crown Dependencies in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two separate bailiwicks: the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey...
. Although a student of fine art, D'Arcy abandoned this career, allegedly on the grounds of poor eyesight, in favour of becoming an author.
Living in London, and working as a contributor to, and unofficial editor of, alongside Henry Harland
Henry Harland
Henry Harland was an American novelist and editor.Harland was born in New York City and attended City College but pretended to be Russian-born. His literary career falls into two distinct sections...
, the Yellow Book, D'Arcy's work is characterised by a psychologically realist style – often attracting comparisons with Henry James
Henry James
Henry James, OM was an American-born writer, regarded as one of the key figures of 19th-century literary realism. He was the son of Henry James, Sr., a clergyman, and the brother of philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James....
– and her determination to engage with themes such as marriage, the family, deception and imitation. Many of her stories also demonstrate the influence of her time in the Channel Islands, most notably 'White Magic.'
Primarily a writer of short stories
Short Stories
Short Stories may refer to:*A plural for Short story*Short Stories , an American pulp magazine published from 1890-1959*Short Stories, a 1954 collection by O. E...
, D'Arcy's output is limited. Best known for her short stories in the Yellow Book, recognition of D'Arcy's work grew after the publication of 'Irremediable', with The Bookman among others, noting the story as praiseworthy. Alongside her work in the Yellow Book, D'Arcy also published in Argosy, Blackwood's Magazine
Blackwood's Magazine
Blackwood's Magazine was a British magazine and miscellany printed between 1817 and 1980. It was founded by the publisher William Blackwood and was originally called the Edinburgh Monthly Magazine. The first number appeared in April 1817 under the editorship of Thomas Pringle and James Cleghorn...
, and Temple Bar
Temple Bar (magazine)
Temple Bar was a literary periodical of the mid and late 19th and very early 20th centuries . The complete title was Temple Bar – A London Magazine for Town and Country Readers. It was initially edited by George Augustus Sala, and Arthur Ransome was the final editor before it folded, while he...
. Her work on the Yellow Book bought her into contact with the publisher John Lane
John Lane (publisher)
-Biography:Originally from Devon, where he was born into a farming family, Lane moved to London already in his teens. While working as a clerk at the Railway Clearing House, he acquired knowledge as an autodidact....
, who initially published her collection of short stories, Monochromes (1895), and went to publish her further works, Modern Instances (1898), and The Bishop’s Dilemma (1898), under the Bodley Head imprint. As well as writing fiction, D'Arcy also translated into English André Maurois
André Maurois
André Maurois, born Emile Salomon Wilhelm Herzog was a French author.-Life:Maurois was born in Elbeuf and educated at the Lycée Pierre Corneille in Rouen, both in Normandy. Maurois was the son of Ernest Herzog, a Jewish textile manufacturer, and Alice Herzog...
's biography of Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the major English Romantic poets and is critically regarded as among the finest lyric poets in the English language. Shelley was famous for his association with John Keats and Lord Byron...
, Ariel (1924). D'Arcy was notorious for her inability to maintain contact with her friends, exacerbated by her love of travel, often appearing unannounced, earning her the nickname 'Goblin Ella.'
Ella D'Arcy spent much of her life living alone, in relative poverty. Her writing, although demonstrating a real engagement with the changing and challenging artistic styles of the late nineteenth century, was motivated by need. She spent her final years living in Paris, until she returned to London in 1937 and died in a London hospital that year.
Other
- Monochromes (1895) -original source
- Modern Instances (1898)
- The Bishop's Dilemma (1898)
- (trans) Ariel (1924)
Further Reading
- Beckson, Karl, "Ella D'Arcy, Aubrey Beardsley and the Crisis at The Yellow Book: A New Letter," Notes and Queries, 26 (1979), 331–33
- Fisher, Benjamin Franklin, "The American Reception of Ella D'Arcy," Victorian Periodicals Review 28 (Fall 1995): 232–48
- --- "Christianity in the Fiction of Ella D'Arcy," Xavier Review, 15 (1995), 29–37
- --- "Ella D'Arcy: A Commentary with a Primary and Annotated Secondary Bibliography", English Literature in Transition, 35 (1992), 179–211
- --- "Ella D’Arcy Reminisces", English Literature in Transition, 37 (1994), 28–32
- Fisher, Benjamin Franklin, and Michael P. Dean, eds., "Ella D'Arcy, First Lady of the Decadents," University of Mississippi Studies in English, 10 (1992), 238–49
- Maier, Sarah E., "Subverting the Ideal: The New Woman and the Battle of the Sexes in the Short Fiction of Ella D'Arcy", Victorian Review 20 (Summer 1994), 35–48
- Mix, Katherine Lyon, A Study in Yellow: The Yellow Book and its Contributors (London: Constable, 1960)
- Stetz, Margaret D., "Turning Points: Ella D'Arcy," Turn-of-the-Century Women, 3 (1986), 1–14
- Stetz, Margaret D., and Mark Samuels Lasner, The Yellow Book: A Centenary Exhibition (Cambridge: The Houghton Library, 1994)
- Windholz, Anne M., "The Woman Who Would Be Editor: Ella D'Arcy and the Yellow Book," Victorian Periodicals Review 29 (Summer 1996), 116–30.