Florence Fenwick Miller · Public domain edition · 67 cards · 19 chapters
Florence Fenwick Miller’s biography argues that Harriet Martineau’s early family life, self-education, and Unitarian circle shaped her later authorship and independence. The deck covers Miller’s sources and research travels, Martineau’s Huguenot background, family relationships, early publications, and the disputes over her education and dying lover.
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Chapter 1 · Question
What sources does Miller say she used for Martineau's final twenty-one years?
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Chapter 1 · Answer
Miller says her record of Martineau's last twenty-one years is entirely fresh, drawn from sources other than the Autobiography, which was completed in 1855. She credits Mr. Henry G. Atkinson, Mr. Henry Reeve, and Miss F. Arnold for letters, and notes Mrs. Chapman's Boston volume failed to systematically record those later years.
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Introduction2 cards
What sources does Miller say she used for Martineau's final twenty-one years?
Miller says her record of Martineau's last twenty-one years is entirely fresh, drawn from sources other than the Autobiography, which was completed in 1855. She credits Mr. Henry G. Atkinson, Mr. Henry Reeve, and Miss F. Arnold for letters, and notes Mrs. Chapman's Boston volume failed to systematically record those later years.
Chapter 1
What places did Miller visit while researching Martineau's life?
Miller visited Norwich, where Martineau was born; Tynemouth, where she lay ill; Ambleside, where she lived long and died; and Birmingham, to see her nieces and nephew. She frames these visits and conversations as small stones laid to a little memorial cairn.
Chapter 1
CHAPTER I.4 cards
Why did Harriet Martineau's Huguenot ancestors leave France and settle in Norwich?
When Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes in 1688, Protestants facing persecution fled France. Harriet's paternal ancestor, a surgeon married to a woman named Pierre, settled in Norwich and practiced there. The family then produced a continuous line of respected surgeons in the town until Harriet's elder brother died young in the early part of the century.
Chapter 2
What was Harriet Martineau's position in her family, and who was the sibling closest in age?
Harriet was the sixth of eight children born to Thomas and Elizabeth Martineau, born in Norwich on June 12, 1802. The next child, born in 1805, became known as Dr. James Martineau, so the two who made the family name famous were next to each other in age. Another child followed in 1811.
Chapter 2
What physical deprivations did Harriet Martineau suffer, and what did she say about them?
She was never able to smell, and consequently was nearly destitute of taste. Deafness became pronounced after she was over twelve. She also suffered greatly from indigestion as a child. She said that when three senses out of five are deficient, the difficulty of cheerful living is great and the terms of life are truly hard.
Chapter 2
How does the chapter characterize Mrs. Martineau as a mother, and what does Dr. Martineau say in her defense?
The chapter describes her as sharp-tempered, masterful, and stern, with cleverness expressed in incessant sarcasm, and a love of power that became domestic despotism. Dr. Martineau says Harriet does not do justice to their mother's nobler qualities, that she was devoted to her children, and that their childhood misery was not consciously her fault.
Chapter 2
CHAPTER II.1 cards
Which authors and subjects shaped Martineau's solitary studies?
Dr. Carpenter first interested her in mental and moral philosophy; she read Locke and Hartley most closely, then Priestley, whose life and opinions led her to the Scottish metaphysicians. She read Latin with her brother James, translated classics alone, studied Italian and Petrarch's sonnets with Mr. Lee, read Blair's Rhetoric repeatedly, and knew the Bible thoroughly.
Chapter 3
CHAPTER III.4 cards
What pseudonym did Harriet Martineau use for her first published article, and why is it notable?
She signed her October 1822 Monthly Repository article "Discipulus," the masculine Latin form for learner. The editor's notice referred to "his" communications, and she wrote of "our sex" as a man would. The author argues this places her among eminent women writers who adopted masculine identities to win impartial judgment for early work.
Chapter 4
What was the subject of Martineau's first printed essay, and what two points make it characteristic?
The essay, "Female Writers of Practical Divinity," argued that some of the finest English works on practical divinity are by women. It is characteristic because she who did much to enlarge women's sphere in letters first wrote on women's capacity to teach through writing, and because she treated practical divinity as simply good conduct, scorning rejection of morality over theological differences.
Chapter 4
What did Martineau's 1823 "Female Education" paper argue, and how did the supposed male author frame it?
Writing as a man, she disclaimed proving women's minds equal to men's, but demanded women's powers be fully cultivated. She noted girls were confined to low pursuits and accomplishments while boys got schooling, and argued cultivated minds would improve women for domestic, charitable, and social duties and benefit men too.
Chapter 4
Why did Martineau's Devotional Exercises omit prayers for material benefits?
She had deliberately abandoned praying for personal benefits, partly because we cannot foresee how external circumstances serve our highest interests, so it is not for us to dictate them. Having convinced herself of Necessitarian doctrine, she held that prayer cannot alter the fixed sequence of events, so her prayers became aspirations toward moral attributes rather than petitions.
Chapter 4
CHAPTER IV. (part 1)3 cards
Why did Mrs. Martineau forbid Harriet to visit her dying lover?
Worthington's physician believed her presence might revive happy anticipations and help his recovery, and his mother wrote begging her to come. Harriet eagerly sought permission, but Mrs. Martineau forbade it. The author says the old habit of obedience and early ideas of filial duty were too strong for Harriet to defy her mother, so she did not go before he died.
Chapter 5
What did Worthington's family believe about Harriet, and how was it explained?
She received what she calls unaccountable insults from his family, whom she had never met. Years later the mystery was explained: they had been told by cautious insinuation that she was actually engaged to another man while receiving their son's addresses. The author notes they had not appreciated how submissive she was as a daughter, so their belief in her insincerity was not unnatural.
Chapter 5
What does the author argue her love affair taught Harriet Martineau?
The author argues the experience taught her to appreciate and properly value the influence of the emotions in life. Never in her works is she guilty of contempt for individual affections, and her writings continually recognize that love of visible brethren precedes love of the unseen. The author uses this to refute the delusion that intellectual development diminishes passion and tenderness.
Chapter 5
CHAPTER IV. (part 2)4 cards
How did Harriet Martineau first earn money before succeeding with her pen?
She earned money through fancy work and needlework, making shirts, puddings, ironing, and mending. During the winter after the Norwich house failed, she spent daylight hours on fancy-work and wrote literature at night until two or three in the morning, while still appearing at the eight o'clock breakfast table.
Chapter 6
What was Martineau's first decisive literary success?
Her little volume The Hope of the Hebrews, based on a story first published in the Monthly Repository. Mr. Fox advised her to make a book of such stories after the tale drew much attention at a sect dinner. The volume, issued with her name, circulated well in England, was translated into French, and was reproduced in the United States.
Chapter 6
What did Mr. Fox offer Martineau for her Repository contributions?
When she wrote that she could not continue so much gratuitous service, Fox replied that his means were limited and offered her L15 a year to write "as much as she thought proper." He forwarded nine books to review as a start, and a considerable portion of the magazine's space was filled by her on these terms for two years.
Chapter 6
What did the author identify as the special feature of Martineau's writings?
The author argues her writings were all designed to teach right conduct, approaching morals from the scientific side by making facts and reasonings from facts the basis of moral teaching. She sought practical application to daily life, and the author calls her one of the first thinkers to uniformly treat practical morals as derived from reasoned science.
Chapter 6
CHAPTER IV. (part 3)4 cards
What ultimatum did Charles Fox set for publishing Martineau's series?
Charles Fox decided he would publish no more than two numbers unless a thousand copies of No. I sold within the first fortnight. This decision came chiefly from W. J. Fox's conversation with James Mill, who opposed the scheme's narrative form and advised orthodox didactic writing instead. Harriet received this as an unreasonable and discouraging ultimatum.
Chapter 7
Why did James Mill object to Martineau's Political Economy scheme?
James Mill, described as a distinguished political economist, pronounced against the essential point of the scheme: the narrative form. He advised that if the young lady must try her hand at Political Economy, she should write it in the orthodox didactic style. His view, relayed through W. J. Fox, shaped Charles Fox's restrictive publishing decision.
Chapter 7
How did Martineau respond emotionally and practically to the discouraging news?
Walking home, too poor to ride and too giddy to stand, she leaned on palings by a cabbage-bed and told herself, "My book will do yet." That night she wrote her preface, then cried by the fire until four and in bed until six. She was up by half-past eight, as firmly resolved as ever that the work should be published.
Chapter 7
What does the chapter suggest about tears and feminine temperament?
The chapter says that if anyone supposes tears argue weakness because the feminine temperament finds relief in them, they will be instructed otherwise. It points to her being up by half-past eight, continuing her work as firmly resolved as ever that it should be published, as evidence against reading her weeping as weakness.
Chapter 7
CHAPTER V.4 cards
How did the first edition of the series sell, and what did Fox propose?
Ten days after the first number appeared, Charles Fox told Harriet that the fifteen hundred copies of the first edition had all sold, and that orders in hand led him to propose printing another five thousand at once. The public took up the work immediately, and the press followed with enthusiasm for both the scheme and the execution of the stories.
Chapter 8
Why does the author defend publishers who rejected the series?
The author argues publishers can judge works on already popular lines, but an entirely original idea or writer is a lottery whose public reception cannot be known until tried. Publishers enter many such lotteries and often lose silently; only their declined successes are remembered. Still, the author says it was Harriet alone who saw the people needed her work, and whose courage brought it out.
Chapter 8
What method did Martineau follow in composing each tale?
She first noted her own ideas on the subject, then read the relevant chapters of standard works, making references. She drew up a concise 'summary of principles' affixed to each tale, chose a setting where those principles operated most manifestly, gleaned local color from travel and topography books, sketched characters, action, scenes and the political economy to be conveyed, then wrote rapidly with few corrections.
Chapter 8
What was Martineau's daily routine in London while writing the series?
She rose at seven, made her own coffee, and wrote from after breakfast until two; from two to four she received visitors, declining morning calls. Then came a daily 'duty walk,' newspapers, dressing for dinner, and often dinner out plus one or two evening parties. She allowed herself five to six hours' sleep and took no stimulants for her work, though she drank wine at dinner.
Chapter 8
CHAPTER VI.4 cards
What did Martineau do at the Boston anti-slavery meeting despite danger?
Fifteen months after arriving in America, Martineau reached Boston the day a mob broke up a ladies' anti-slavery meeting and half-murdered Garrison. Though she had promised to attend an abolitionists' meeting and saw the personal danger, she went to the next ladies' society meeting a month later and, asked for a few words, declared her full sympathy with the association's principles.
Chapter 9
What social consequences did Martineau face for her anti-slavery declaration?
She received innumerable personal insults and slights, public and private, where before all had been homage. Southern newspapers threatened her safety, calling her a foreign 'incendiary,' and she gave up an intended Ohio tour after a Cincinnati merchant reported a plot to hang her at Louisville to warn 'meddlesome foreigners.' Her private friendships, however, were unaffected.
Chapter 9
What was the main flaw Martineau later saw in Society in America's method?
She later judged her plan radically faulty: she had taken an a priori theory and judged American facts by their agreement with it, starting at the wrong end. She came to hold that the theory should be judged by how people lived, and that a traveller should observe facts and draw lessons from them, gathering political philosophy from experience rather than viewing real life only through a pre-conceived philosophy.
Chapter 9
How did Martineau's book deal with slavery and other radical topics?
The anti-slavery tone pervades the book, drawing violent attacks; Margaret Fuller complained 'this subject haunts us on every page.' Martineau also argued divorce should be permissible by mutual consent with equitable arrangements for children and property, pleaded for women's emancipation, and attacked enormous fortunes and primogeniture. She never regretted this boldness, valuing freedom of thought and speech above reputation or fortune.
Chapter 9
CHAPTER VII.4 cards
Why did Harriet Martineau refuse the Civil List pension offered by Lord Melbourne?
She objected on principle to public money being dispensed in pensions at the sole will of the Ministry rather than by the people's representatives. She also feared that accepting would bind her to the Ministers and be seen by the public as such, costing her freedom and usefulness. She said she would rather receive parish aid than be a pensioner while taxation was levied unequally.
Chapter 10
What was Martineau's stated purpose in writing The Hour and the Man?
She wrote it as a contribution to the anti-slavery cause, believing it useful to show the capacity and high moral character displayed by a negro of the blackest shade when in possession of power. Toussaint L'Ouverture, leader of the San Domingo revolution and president of the black Republic of Hayti, was its hero. Begun May 1840, published November 1840.
Chapter 10
How did Martineau describe the effect of familiar pain in Life in the Sick-Room?
She observed that a familiar pain becomes more and more dreaded rather than more lightly esteemed with familiarity. The pain itself becomes more odious, oppressive, and feared in proportion to accumulated experience of weary hours and the aggregate of painful associations each visitation revives. She compared this to paroxysms of remorse, the severest of moral pains.
Chapter 10
What did Martineau's friends do in 1843 after she refused a pension?
Friends who knew her circumstances collected money for a testimonial. L1,400 was invested for her benefit in Terminable Long Annuities, and a considerable sum besides was spent on a present of plate. The Ladies Lambton, the eldest later Countess of Elgin, went to Tynemouth to use the plate with her for the first time, making it a testimonial fete.
Chapter 10
CHAPTER VIII.4 cards
Why did Harriet Martineau build her own house at Ambleside, and how did she finance it?
At forty-two she was free for the first time to have a home of her own, which the chapter calls as natural for a grown woman to desire as for a fledged bird to leave the nest. She bought two acres near Ambleside, borrowed money on mortgage from a well-to-do cousin, had plans drawn under her instructions, and watched the building to suit her own tastes.
Chapter 11
What was the daily routine Martineau followed at the Knoll after settling there in 1847?
She rose very early, sometimes before daylight, and took a long walk, then breakfasted at half-past seven, arranged household matters, and was at her desk by half-past eight, working undisturbed until the two o'clock dinner. Business hours were sacred even with visitors. After dinner she attended guests or walked, did wool-work in bad weather, and ended each day with silent meditation in the porch or on the terrace.
Chapter 11
How did Martineau treat and train her servants, according to the chapter?
She was not a mistress who could not talk to servants, nor one who indulged in idle gossip. She invited the maids into her sitting-room to explain news of the day, and during the Crimean War and the American struggle they traced battles on the map with her. She sought young girls of somewhat superior order to train and attach to herself, and her kitchen was airy and light with a bookcase for a servants' library.
Chapter 11
What was the outcome of Forest and Game Law Tales, and what gift did she receive for it?
She wrote the three-volume work while lodging in Ambleside during 1845-6 to show the mischief of the game laws on society, farmers, and laborers driven to poaching. Two thousand copies sold, but it was her only work that never returned any remuneration, since the publisher overinvested and publication coincided with corn-law repeal agitation. A poacher left a heap of sods under her window as thanks.
Chapter 11
CHAPTER IX.4 cards
What did Eastern Life, Past and Present announce about Martineau's beliefs?
It first declared to the world that Harriet Martineau had ceased to have a theology. Traveling through Egypt and the lands of the Hebrew, Christian, and Mohammedan faiths, she concluded that men construct the image of a Ruler of the Universe from their own minds, and that all theologies are baseless productions of the human imagination with no essential connection to religious ideas and emotions.
Chapter 12
How does Miller compare The History of the Thirty Years' Peace with Society in America?
Miller says Martineau did in the History what she had designed in Society in America, but here in the right method, there in a wrong one. In the History, principles underlie the whole fabric and politicians' actions judge their professed creeds; in the earlier work, theories were postulated first and actions measured against self-derived standards. Miller calls the History unmatched in its class and likely her most enduring work.
Chapter 12
Why does Miller consider the Letters on the Laws of Man's Nature and Development a mistake in form?
Miller argues it was an error for Martineau to present a book in which she avowed herself Atkinson's pupil. Her letters are mainly questions seeking enlightenment, and the answers cannot give a connected system of thought. Miller notes she herself said no mind can work well on lines laid down by another, yet that is what she required of Atkinson; facts and inferences are neither separated nor connected, and the book's value is lost in disorder.
Chapter 12
What does Miller identify as the high-water mark of Martineau's permanent achievements?
Miller states that in Eastern Life and The History of the Thirty Years' Peace she touched the high-water mark of her permanent achievements. Much more work followed, but it was journalism, which Miller calls the most powerful at the moment yet most evanescent kind of work, with the single exception of oratory. He says the influence of a powerful journalist cannot be measured, so this important work eludes detailed survey.
Chapter 12
CHAPTER X. (part 1)4 cards
What did doctors conclude about Martineau's health in 1855, and how long did she live after?
Dr. Latham and Sir Thomas Watson concluded she had enlargement and enfeeblement of the heart and told her, at her request for candor, that her life would probably not be much prolonged. She believed she was dying and made preparations accordingly, yet she bore the trial for twenty-one long suffering years.
Chapter 13
What unusual bequest did Martineau make in her will regarding her body?
From an interest in the progress of scientific investigation, she desired that her skull be given to Henry George Atkinson of Upper Gloucester Place, and also her brain if her death occurred near enough to his abode for him to have it for scientific investigation. Her funeral was ordered to be plain and at least possible cost.
Chapter 13
Why does the biographer consider the Autobiography the least worthy of Martineau's writings?
It was written in hot haste, with the latter part composed before the first, and was hard, censorious, vain, and aggressive rather than revealing her finer qualities. Her new rationalism sat uneasily, and abusive letters calling her unbelief a frightful sin wounded her self-esteem at the moment of writing.
Chapter 13
How did Martineau respond when the Westminster Review refused her 'Meddlesome Legislation' article?
The editor refused it not on principle but because it spoke too freely of advocates of meddlesome factory laws. She published it as a pamphlet, and it influenced a bill then before Parliament; the Association of Factory Occupiers gave one hundred guineas in her name to a charity in appreciation.
Chapter 13
CHAPTER X. (part 2)4 cards
What did Martineau publish in April 1859 to aid Florence Nightingale's army work?
She published a large volume titled England and her Soldiers, written to aid Florence Nightingale's work for the benefit of the army. It popularized findings of the Royal Commission on the sanitary condition of the army and added Nightingale's views and opinions, studied at first hand. The book also warmly recounts Nightingale's efforts, sacrifices, and triumphs.
Chapter 14
How many Daily News leaders did Martineau write in 1861, and on what range of subjects?
She wrote one hundred and nine leading articles in 1861 on political and social affairs. Subjects ranged widely, including the American Union and Civil War, secession, cotton supply, Indian famines and irrigation, laborers' dwellings, the builders' strike, education codes, and the death of Prince Albert. She also wrote to the Boston Anti-Slavery Standard and contributed fortnightly to Once a Week.
Chapter 14
What did Martineau do for Lancashire workers during the cotton famine?
She threw herself into their service, using all her public and private influence on their behalf during 1861 and employing her best energies in aiding and advising the relief committees. Her correspondence on this topic would fill a large volume. The author says their patience, quietness, and heroism, and their conviction they aided a good cause, aroused her loving sympathies.
Chapter 14
What American tributes and requests came to Martineau during the Civil War?
The History of the Peace was reprinted in Boston during the war at the instance of businessmen who believed its political and economic lessons were much needed. The Atlantic Monthly asked her to write a series on Military Hygiene, which she accepted despite being over-pressed. New York citizens presented her the Rebellion Record, and Henry Wilson inscribed his Slave Power in America with gratitude for her devotion to freedom.
Chapter 14
CHAPTER X. (part 3)3 cards
Why did Martineau resign from the Daily News in April 1866?
She resigned after fourteen years of service, during the spring, which was always her worst time for health. In April 1866 a customary vernal worsening of illness left her feeling she absolutely must be freed from the obligation and temptation to frequent work. Her niece said she was ill enough by then to feel only relief at being freed from the constant pressure of the duty of thought and speech.
Chapter 15
What effect did leaving the Daily News have on Martineau's literary life?
By terminating her connection with the paper through whose columns she had spoken so long, she practically concluded her literary life. Her intellectual powers and her interest in public affairs were not perceptibly diminished and continued all but unabated to the end of her life. Her regular literary exertions, however, were now at an end, and illness made her feel only relief at being freed.
Chapter 15
How did Martineau come to write the work mentioned at the chapter's start?
She wrote it with some reluctance, after she had suggested the subject to Mr. Reeve and he replied that he could find no one suitable to undertake it but herself. She was very loath to cease writing for the Daily News and continued it until the spring of 1866. Only when she felt she absolutely must be freed from the obligation and temptation to frequent work did she stop.
Chapter 15
CHAPTER XI. (part 1)2 cards
Why did Harriet Martineau face financial perplexity in April 1867?
The Brighton Railway temporarily failed to pay its dividends, cutting off her main income. She had L230 per annum from that railway's preference stock and only L150 yearly from all other sources—the modest fortune saved from a long life of industry and thrift. Her household offered to make sacrifices, and her family intervened to prevent her from giving up wine, ale, the Times, and Mudie's books until the dividends resumed.
Chapter 16
How did Martineau try to manage sleeplessness in her last years?
Her nights were very broken, causing drowsiness by day. Under medical advice she tried smoking to get better rest, with some success, usually through the chiboque she had brought home from the East and learned to use there. In the appendix to Eastern Life she wrote that she found it good for her health and saw no more reason against it than English ladies taking sherry at home; she resumed it whenever health and comfort required.
Chapter 16
CHAPTER XI. (part 2)4 cards
Why did Harriet Martineau decline Gladstone's offer of a Civil List pension in 1873?
She declined with real gratitude, partly for the same reasons she had refused a similar offer before, and additionally because she would not expose the Queen and the Premier to insult for showing friendliness to "an infidel." The offer came after Mrs. Grote published a letter in which Martineau had written sadly of her sufferings; Gladstone indicated he would recommend her to the Queen if pecuniary anxiety added to her troubles.
Chapter 17
What did Harriet Martineau arrange regarding her skull and brain after death, and what changed?
Her will provided that her skull and brain be sent to Mr. Atkinson for scientific examination, and the Ambleside surgeon Mr. Shepherd had agreed to prepare and transmit them. After Shepherd died in 1872, his successor Mr. William Moore King engaged to perform the task. However, Atkinson was then living outside England and asked to be freed from his promise, so a codicil revoked the provision.
Chapter 17
How did Martineau describe her views on death and religion in her November 1872 letter?
She avowed satisfaction at her release from selfish superstition and trumpery self-regards, and calm conclusions of reason about what to desire and expect. She said she would never crave the "glory and bliss" preachers set before us, and that she was satisfied with the conditions of the life left behind and fearless of the death before her. She wrote partly in response to a letter from the new Evangelical curate.
Chapter 17
What did Martineau think of George Eliot's Adam Bede on a second reading?
She called Miss Evans' first great novel a singular mind, truly wonderful in power and scope, and said its intellectual power and grace attract and win people of very high intellectual quality. The remark appears in her November 1872 letter, where she also mentions reading Miss Thackeray's Old Kensington with keen pleasure but finding the author's mannerism growing deplorably.
Chapter 17
CHAPTER XI. (part 3)4 cards
What did the post-mortem reveal as the true cause of Martineau's long suffering?
The post-mortem, performed two days after her death at her executors' request, revealed a dermoid cyst as the true cause of her sufferings. She never knew this herself; relying on eminent doctors consulted in 1855, she believed her heart was affected. The slow-growing cyst caused twenty-one years of constant suffering and compelled her to descend stairs backwards and spend much time recumbent.
Chapter 18
How did Martineau describe her view of death in her final letter to Mr. Atkinson?
In her May 1876 letter, Martineau wrote that she could think of no probable future except "annihilation," to which she had no objection. She saw everything in the universe go out and disappear, and found no reason to suppose death was not actual and entire. She wished to escape the narrowness of a merely human view of things and of making God after man's own image.
Chapter 18
What activities did Martineau continue in her final months despite her illness?
Even in her last weeks she could not be idle. Though her hands were cramped and her eyes weak, she continued correspondence with close friends and took up knitting, the easiest fancy work, making double-knitted cot blankets for babies of young friends and poorer neighbors. She finished one blanket early in 1876 and left a second unfinished at her death.
Chapter 18
How does the chapter characterize Martineau's faults and her old age?
The chapter says she had faults, the necessary defects of her virtues: she held her own opinions too confidently, since the uncertain cannot be teachers; her personal dislikes were many and strong, the antithesis of powerful attachments; and her powers of antagonism were at times insufficiently restrained. Yet her last years are described as patient, loving, and serene, a beautiful old age.
Chapter 18
CHAPTER XI. (part 4)4 cards
How does Stoddard's review characterize Mary Wollstonecraft's posthumous reputation?
Stoddard argues that Wollstonecraft was not honored during her life, except by those who knew her well, nor for years after her death, but is honored now, even by granddaughters of the ladies who condemned her. He praises her sacrifices for her father and sisters, her industry, independence, and courage, and calls her a force in literature and the enfranchisement of women.
Chapter 19
What does The Index say Mrs. Miller's chief concern was in writing this life?
The Index states that one of Mrs. Miller's chief concerns was to redeem Harriet Martineau's character from the appearance of hardness and unamiability conveyed by her own autobiography. The review says Miller succeeds in showing a home-loving, neighborly, bright-natured, tender-hearted, witty, lovable, and womanly side, alongside the clear thinker and comprehensive writer already known.
Chapter 19
How does Professor Woods rank Harriet Martineau among English women writers?
Professor Woods says that, with the possible exception of George Eliot, Harriet Martineau was the greatest of English women. He notes she was a poet and novelist but did not earn distinction that way; she was more noteworthy for achievements in lines of thought not usually essayed by women, being eminent as a political economist, theologian, journalist, and historian.
Chapter 19
What does the Troy Telegram say about Martineau's character and the series' value?
The Troy Telegram calls her noble and true, with a life that stands confessed a success. It says that although literary, she was a home lover and home builder, and never lost the higher aims and ends of life despite flattering success. It recommends the whole Famous Women series to the young ladies of today, calling more such biography highly beneficial.
Chapter 19
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Text used: Project Gutenberg eBook #36965 (Public domain in the United States). Generated from the full text; cards paraphrase the source.
Version: Public domain edition. Retrieved 2026-10-27. Cards reviewed 2026-10-27.
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