Caroline Norton (1808–1877)
Auteur de Caroline Norton's Defense: English Laws for Women in the Nineteenth Century
A propos de l'auteur
Caroline Norton is primarily remembered today for her work in repealing the divorce and child custody laws of the Victorian period. The granddaughter of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, the famous Restoration playwright, Norton, herself a prolific and widely read poet and novelist, married George Chapple afficher plus Norton in 1827. The marriage was a notoriously unhappy one that culminated in separation in 1836, when her husband brought suit of adultery against Lord Melbourne. The suit failed, but, in accordance with the matrimonial laws of the time, her husband retained custody of their children. Norton immediately began a long fight for custody. Because the laws of the time denied married women most rights of property and even juridical status, the popular press was the arena for her struggle; in 1839 she published A Plain Letter to the Lord Chancellor on the Infant Custody Bill under the pseudonym Pearce Stevenson. When her youngest son died in 1842, largely due to neglect on the part of her husband, he relented and granted her custody of their two surviving children. Between 1827 and 1842, despite the difficulties of what was rapidly becoming a very public private life and the demands of her writing to reform child custody laws, Norton published a book of verse, The Sorrows of Rosalie (1829), a long poem, The Undying One (1830), her first novel, The Wife and Woman's Reward (1835), and her important factory reform poem, A Voice from the Factories (1836). In 1853, she was sued for debt by her husband, who upon the death of Norton's mother had been cut short of allowance and seized her copyright interests. In response to this lawsuit, Norton once again pamphleteered for her cause, this time in support of the Divorce Bill. Her open Letter to the Queen on this topic was published in 1855. Although she was still active as a writer, she was nearing the end of her literary career. She had published a novel, Stuart of Dunleath, in 1851, but her last long poem, The Lady of La Garaye, appeared in 1862 and her last novel, Old Sir Douglas, in 1867. Norton's poetry and novels today remain relatively unread, although her work for women's rights has been thoroughly documented and remains an important record of English laws for women during the nineteenth century. Throughout her life, Norton was renowned for her wit, grace, and beauty. George Meredith's Diana of the Crossways is putatively based on Norton's affair with Melbourne. (Bowker Author Biography) afficher moins
Notice de désambiguation :
(eng) also known simply as Mrs. Norton or the Hon. Mrs. Norton.
Crédit image: Image © ÖNB/Wien
Œuvres de Caroline Norton
The Lady of La Garaye. [A poem.] 3 exemplaires
The English Annual 2 exemplaires
Poems of The Hon. Carolina Elizabeth Norton (Volume I) 2 exemplaires
The wife and woman's reward [by C.E.S. Norton] 2 exemplaires
English Annual, The. for 1838 1 exemplaire
Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap-Book 1849 1 exemplaire
The English annual, for 1 exemplaire
The Poems of The Hon. Mrs. Norton 1 exemplaire
The sorrows of Rosalie : a tale ; with other poems 1 exemplaire
Stuart of Dunleath, a story of modern times. 1 exemplaire
Poems 1 exemplaire
The English Annual for 1835 1 exemplaire
Oeuvres associées
Hymns of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (1985) — Contributeur; Contributeur — 275 exemplaires
Étiqueté
Partage des connaissances
- Nom légal
- Norton, Caroline Elizabeth Sarah (married)
Sheridan, Caroline Elizabeth Sarah (born)
Stirling-Maxwell, Caroline (second marriage) - Autres noms
- Mrs. Norton
Hon. Mrs. Norton - Date de naissance
- 1808-03-22
- Date de décès
- 1877-06-15
- Sexe
- female
- Nationalité
- UK
- Lieu de naissance
- London, England, UK
- Lieu du décès
- London, England, UK
- Lieux de résidence
- London, England (birth | death)
- Professions
- poet
women's rights activist
novelist
society hostess
social reformer
pamphleteer (tout afficher 7)
playwright - Relations
- Sheridan, Richard Brinsley (grandfather)
Sheridan, Frances (great-grandmother)
Le Fanu, Sheridan (second cousin)
Blackwood, Helen Selina Sheridan (sister)
Sheridan, Caroline Henrietta (mother)
Dufferin, Lord (nephew) - Courte biographie
- Caroline Norton, née Sheridan, was born in London, England, to the novelist Caroline Henrietta Sheridan and her husband Thomas Sheridan, son of the Irish playwright-manager Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Her older sister Helen Selina Blackwood was a songwriter and poet. In 1827, Caroline married George Chapple Norton, a lawyer and Tory Member of Parliament with whom she had three sons, and is best known to history as Mrs. Norton. During the early years of the marriage, Caroline became a leading society hostess noted for her beauty and wit. Among her friends were Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Edward Trelawney, Mary Shelley, Fanny Kemble, Benjamin Disraeli, Lord Melbourne, and Prince Leopold, the future king of Belgium. She wrote plays and novels and made her literary debut with The Sorrows of Rosalie in 1830. In 1836, she separated from her husband after years of physical and mental abuse. She tried to support herself with her writing, but her husband claimed her earnings as his own, and prevented her from seeing her children. She began to campaign passionately for the enactment of laws granting rights to married and divorced women in Great Britain. Thanks largely to her efforts, Parliament passed the 1839 Custody of Infants Act, the 1857 Matrimonial Causes Act, and the 1870 Married Women's Property Act. She was a prolific writer who produced more than two dozen plays, novels, collections of poetry, and political pamphlets. A friend of the writer George Meredith, she served as the inspiration for Diana Warwick, the heroine of his 1885 novel Diana of the Crossways.
- Notice de désambigüisation
- also known simply as Mrs. Norton or the Hon. Mrs. Norton.
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Listes
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Statistiques
- Œuvres
- 21
- Aussi par
- 2
- Membres
- 61
- Popularité
- #274,234
- Évaluation
- 4.6
- ISBN
- 9