Mary Meeke
Encyclopedia
Mary Meeke was a prolific author of around 30 novel
s published by the Minerva Press
during the early 19th century, and is believed to have died in October 1816.
She sometimes used the pseudonym 'Gabrielli', and probably married a clergyman and poet, the Reverend Francis Meeke (B.A. 1773, M.A. 1776, Cambridge). Her first published novel was "Count St Blanchard" in 1795: others include, The Abbey of Cluny, The Mysterious Wife, Anecdotes of the Altamont Family, and Which is the Man?. Her works include several translations from French, e.g. "Elizabeth, or the Exiles of Siberia"
The third edition of Chamber's Cyclopaedia of English Literature {1903 v3:p178} gives this assessment of her work."The novels are worthless and would be quite forgotten but for the mention of them in the Life of Macaulay, who in his younger days at least " all but knew them by heart". According to Macaulay's sister the most of them turn on the fortunes of some young man in a very low rank of life who ultimately proves to be the son of a duke."
"Our public schools," Mary Meeke said in her time, "are mere hot-beds for the encouragement of vice and dissipation, which flourish in still greater perfection at college; and as for the grand tour, "why, half those who undertake it return greater fools than they set out".
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
s published by the 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...
during the early 19th century, and is believed to have died in October 1816.
She sometimes used the pseudonym 'Gabrielli', and probably married a clergyman and poet, the Reverend Francis Meeke (B.A. 1773, M.A. 1776, Cambridge). Her first published novel was "Count St Blanchard" in 1795: others include, The Abbey of Cluny, The Mysterious Wife, Anecdotes of the Altamont Family, and Which is the Man?. Her works include several translations from French, e.g. "Elizabeth, or the Exiles of Siberia"
The third edition of Chamber's Cyclopaedia of English Literature {1903 v3:p178} gives this assessment of her work."The novels are worthless and would be quite forgotten but for the mention of them in the Life of Macaulay, who in his younger days at least " all but knew them by heart". According to Macaulay's sister the most of them turn on the fortunes of some young man in a very low rank of life who ultimately proves to be the son of a duke."
"Our public schools," Mary Meeke said in her time, "are mere hot-beds for the encouragement of vice and dissipation, which flourish in still greater perfection at college; and as for the grand tour, "why, half those who undertake it return greater fools than they set out".
External links
- R. MAGNANI. The Mysterious Mrs Meeke: A Biographical and Bibliographical Study, Cardiff Corvey: Reading the Romantic Text 9 (Dec 2002)].