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MARTINEAU, HARRIET (1802-1876)

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 797 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MARTINEAU, HARRIET (1802-1876) , See also:English writer, was See also:born at See also:Norwich, where her See also:father was a manufacturer, on the 12th of See also:June 1802. The See also:family was of Huguenot extraction (see MARTINEAU, See also:JAMES) and professed Unitarian views. The See also:atmosphere of her See also:home was industrious, intellectual and austere; she herself was See also:clever, but weakly and unhappy; she had no sense of See also:taste or See also:smell, and moreover See also:early See also:grew See also:deaf. At the See also:age of fifteen the See also:state of her See also:health and nerves led to a prolonged visit to her father's See also:sister, Mrs Kentish, who kept a school at See also:Bristol. Here, in the companionship of amiable and talented See also:people, her See also:life became happier. Here, also, she See also:fell under the See also:influence of the Unitarian See also:minister, Dr Lant See also:Carpenter, from whose instructions, she says, she derived " an abominable spiritual rigidity and a truly respectable force of See also:conscience strangely mingled together." From 1819 to 183o she again resided chiefly at Norwich. About her twentieth See also:year her deafness became See also:con-firmed. In 1821 she began to write anonymously for the Monthly Repository, a Unitarian periodical, and in 1823 she published Devotional Exercises and Addresses, Prayers and See also:Hymns. In 1826 her father died, leaving a See also:bare See also:maintenance to his wife and daughters. His See also:death had been preceded by that of his eldest son, and was shortly followed by that of a See also:man to whom Harriet was engaged. Mrs Martineau and her daughters soon after lost all their means by the failure of the See also:house where their See also:money was placed. Harriet had to See also:earn her living, and, being precluded by deafness from teaching, took up authorship in See also:earnest.

Besides reviewing for the Repository she wrote stories (afterwards collected as Traditions of See also:

Palestine), gained in one year (183o) three See also:essay-prizes of the Unitarian Association, and eked out her income by See also:needlework. In 1831 she was seeking a publisher for a See also:series of tales designed as Illustrations of See also:Political See also:Economy. After many failures she accepted disadvantageous terms from See also:Charles See also:Fox, to whom she was introduced by his See also:brother, the editor of the Repository. The See also:sale of the first of the series was immediate and enormous, the demand increased with each new number, and from that See also:time her See also:literary success was secured. In 1832 she moved to See also:London, where she numbered among her acquaintance See also:Hallam, See also:Milman, See also:Malthus, Monckton Milnes, See also:Sydney See also:Smith, Bulwer, and later See also:Carlyle. . Till 1834 she continued to be occupied with her political economy series and with a supplemental series of Illustrations of See also:Taxation. Four stories dealing with the poor-See also:law came out about the same time. These tales, See also:direct, lucid, written without any See also:appearance of effort, and yet practically effective, display the characteristics of their author's See also:style. In 1834, when the series was See also:complete, See also:Miss Martineau paid a See also:long visit to See also:America. Here her open See also:adhesion to the Abolitionist party, then small and very unpopular, gave See also:great offence, which was deepened by the publication, soon after her return, of Society in America (1837) and a Retrospect of Western Travel (1838). An See also:article in the See also:Westminster See also:Review, " The See also:Martyr Age of the See also:United States," introduced English readers to the struggles of the Abolitionists. The See also:American books were followed by a novel, Deerbrook (1839) —a See also:story of See also:middle-class See also:country life.

To the same See also:

period belong a few little handbooks, forming parts of a See also:Guide to Service. The veracity of her Maid of All See also:Work led to a wide-spread belief, which she regarded with some complacency, that she had once been a maid of all work herself. In 1839, during a visit to the See also:Continent, Miss Martineau's health See also:broke down. She retired to solitary lodgings in See also:Tyne- mouth, and remained an invalid till 1844. Besides a novel, The See also:Hour and the Man (1840), Life in the Sickroom (1844), and the Playfellow (1841), she published a series of tales for See also:children containing some of her most popular work: Settlers at Home, The See also:Peasant and the See also:Prince, Feats on the Fiord, &c. During this illness she for a second time declined a See also:pension on the See also:civil See also:list, fearing to See also:compromise her political See also:independence. Her See also:letter on the subject was published, and some of her See also:friends raised a small See also:annuity for her soon after. In 1844 Miss Martineau underwent a course of mesmerism, and in a few months was restored to health. She eventually published an See also:account of her See also:case, which had caused much discussion, in sixteen Letters on Mesmerism. On her recovery she removed to See also:Ambleside, where she built herself " The Knoll," the house in which the greater See also:part of her after life was spent. In 1845 she published three volumes of See also:Forest and See also:Game Law Tales. In 1846 she made a tour with some friends in See also:Egypt, Palestine and See also:Syria, and on her return published Eastern Life, See also:Present and Past (1848).

This work showed that as humanity passed through one after another of the See also:

world's historic religions, the conception of the Deity and of Divine See also:government became at each step more and more abstract and indefinite. The ultimate See also:goal Miss Martineau believed to be philosophic See also:atheism, but this belief she did not expressly declare. She published about this time See also:Household See also:Education, expounding the theory that freedom and rationality, rather than command and obedience, are the most effectual See also:instruments of education. Her See also:interest in schemes of instruction led her to start a series of lectures, addressed at first to the school children of Ambleside, but after-wards extended, at their own See also:desire, to their elders. The subjects were sanitary principles and practice, the histories of See also:England and See also:North America, and the scenes of her Eastern travels. At the See also:request of Charles See also:Knight she wrote, in 1849, The See also:History of the See also:Thirty Years' See also:Peace, 2816–z846—an excellent popular history written from the point of view of a " philosophical See also:Radical," completed in twelve months. In 1851 Miss Martineau edited a See also:volume of Letters on the See also:Laws of Man's Nature and Development. Its See also:form is that of a See also:correspondence between herself and H. G. See also:Atkinson, and it expounds that See also:doctrine of philosophical atheism to which Miss Martineau in Eastern Life had depicted the course of human belief as tending. The existence of a first cause is not denied, but is declared unknowable, and the authors, while regarded by others as denying it, certainly considered themselves to be affirming the doctrine of man's moral See also:obligation. Atkinson was a zealous exponent of mesmerism, and the prominence given to the topics of mesmerism and See also:clairvoyance heightened the See also:general disapprobation of the See also:book, which caused a lasting See also:division between Miss Martineau and some of her friends.

She published a condensed English version of the Philosophie See also:

Positive (18J3). To the Daily See also:News she contributed regularly from 1852 to 1866. Her Letters from See also:Ireland, written during a visit to that country in the summer of 1852, appeared in that See also:paper. She was for many years a contributor to the Westminster Review, and was one of the little See also:band of supporters whose pecuniary assistance in 1854 prevented its extinction or forced sale. In the early part of 1855 Miss Martineau found herself suffering from See also:heart disease. She now began to write her auto-See also:biography, but her life, which she supposed to be so near its See also:close, was prolonged for twenty years. She died at " The Knoll " on the 27th of June 1876. She cultivated a tiny See also:farm at Ambleside with success, and her poorer neighbours owed much to her. Her busy life bears the consistent impress of two leading characteristics—See also:industry and sincerity. The See also:verdict which she records on herself in the autobiographical See also:sketch See also:left to be published by the Daily News has been endorsed by posterity. She says—" Her See also:original See also:power was nothing more than was due to earnestness and intellectual clearness within a certain range. With small imaginative and suggestive See also:powers, and therefore nothing approaching to See also:genius, she could see clearly what she did see, and give a dear expressionto what she had to say.

In See also:

short, she could popularize while she could neither discover nor invent." Her See also:judgment on large questions was clear and See also:sound, and was always the judgment of a mind naturally progressive and See also:Protestant. See her Autobiography, with Memorials by Maria See also:Weston See also:Chapman (1877) and Mrs. See also:Fenwick See also:Miller, Harriet Martineau (1884, " Eminent See also:Women Series ").

End of Article: MARTINEAU, HARRIET (1802-1876)

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