Eliza Parsons

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Eliza Parsons (born Eliza Phelps * 1739 in Plymouth , Devon , England , † 5. February 1811 in Leytonstone , Essex , England) was an English writer who in her lifetime mainly by the publisher Minerva Press by William Lane laid novels as The Castle of Wolfenbach was known.

Life

Born as the daughter of the wine merchant John Phelp, Eliza Parsons only began her writing debut after the death of her husband in 1790 , in order to be able to earn a living for herself and her eight children.

After her two-volume debut novel The History of Miss Meredith (1790), her best-known novel The Castle of Wolfenbach was published in 1793 by Minerva Press, also in two volumes.

The books published by Lane imitated the novels of the then very popular successful author Ann Radcliffe , who linked the sensitive romance novels in the tradition of Samuel Richardson's Pamela (1740) with motifs from the horror novels . In doing so, the Minerva Press novels exaggerated the sensational and sentimental moments in order to achieve the greatest possible effect on the reader. With its novels, the publishing house became the epitome of this genre and was thus at the center of the controversy that this literature sparked. Most of the novels that were so successful at the time, mostly written in chord and often published anonymously, have now been forgotten along with their authors such as Eliza Parsons and Regina Maria Roche .

Her other novels include:

  • Woman as She Should Be (1793)
  • The Mysterious Warning: A German Tale (1796)
  • Women as They Are (1797)
  • The Girl of the Mountain (4 volumes, 1797)
  • An old Friend with a new Face (3 volumes, 1797)
  • Anecdotes of Well-Known Families (1798)
  • The Valley of St. Gothard (1799)
  • The Miser and his Family (4 volumes, 1800)
  • The Peasent of Ardenne Forest (4 volumes, 1801)
  • The Mysterious Visit (1802)
  • Love and Gratitude (1804)
  • Murray House (3 volumes, 1804)
  • The Convict or Navy Lieutenant (1807)

Web links and sources

personal data
SURNAME Parsons, Eliza
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Phelp, Eliza (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English writer
DATE OF BIRTH 1739
PLACE OF BIRTH Plymouth , Devon , England
DATE OF DEATH February 5, 1811
Place of death Leytonstone , Essex , England