Author Description

This is the first wide-ranging selection of Harriet Martineau's letters to the major figures in Victorian political and literary history. Unashamedly forthright and often bigoted, the letters express her opinions on literary realism and George Eliot, biography and Mrs. Gaskell's Life of Charlotte Brontë, and Elizabeth Barrett's contribution to modern poetry. Illustrating the spirit of Victorian social and literary life, the letters reveal her outspoken views on contemporary writers, the working classes, women's role in society, political change, illness, mesmerism, and her own writing.