Flora Annie Steel

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Flora Annie Steel (1867)
Tales of the Punjab (1894)
Illustration to the fairy tale She went along, and went along, and went along by Arthur Rackham (1867–1939)
Steel in 1904

Flora Annie Steel , b. Webster , (born April 2, 1847 in Harrow-on-the-Hill , † April 12, 1929 in Minchinhampton ) was a British author . She was nicknamed the "female Kipling ".

biography

Flora Annie Webster grew up in Harrow. Her parents were Isabella (McCallum) Webster, the heiress of a Jamaican sugar cane planter , and Georg Webster. The mother's entire fortune was lost due to the father's failing business and as a result of these financial problems the family had to move to Scotland in 1856 and the father accepted a post as sheriff's officer in Forfarshire . Flora Annie was the sixth of the couple's eleven children. She attended a school in Brussels for six months but, like her sisters and unlike her brothers, received no school education because there was no money. The father was of the opinion that a thorough reading of the books in his library was sufficient for the education of his daughters.

In 1867 she married Henry William Steel (1840–1923), a member of the Indian Civil Service whom she had known since childhood. A few hours after the wedding, the couple traveled to India, where two of Annie's brothers were already stationed. Their daughter Mabel was born in 1870 after Flora Annie had previously suffered a miscarriage due to an attack of fever . Flora Annie Steel was plagued by fever again and again in the years to come. In the first three years of their marriage alone, Henry Steel was transferred nine times within the north of India (the area has been largely part of Pakistan since 1947 ). Because she came from a large family, his wife often felt lonely and isolated; in Kasur, for example, the couple were the only Europeans: "I had no choice - I had to watch or die," she wrote in her autobiography. The Steels later lived in Lahore and Dalhousie , a town named after the former Governor General of British India , Lord Dalhousie .

To avoid her isolation, Steel chose a different life than many of the "bored memsahibs " she later scoffed at in her stories. Through the birth of her daughter and with the support of the local Aya , she came into contact with Indian women: “A baby is a good ambassador.” She learned the Punjabi script as well as several Indian languages ​​and became familiar with local customs and traditions. She later urged British women in India to learn Hindustani : "No sane English woman would dream of living in Germany, Italy or France for about twenty years without definitely trying to learn the language."

Mabel Steel was sent to England to attend school there, but also because of the stressful climate . Her mother suffered greatly from this separation and threw herself into work to compensate. When Flora Annie Steel realized that the Parda regulations prevented medical treatment for sick women and children, she took care of sick people herself. At the same time, she began teaching English to boys under 16. At the suggestion of the local Chief Native Administrator , she built a school for women and girls, one of many schools she founded that were to follow. During this time, she shocked local society because she had been separated from her husband, who had been reassigned, for a year. When they left Kasur after three years, the students gave her a brooch to which they had contributed a small gemstone or a pearl from their own jewelry. Steel called this brooch their Star of India . Presumably as a result of these successful efforts, Steel was appointed inspector of elementary schools in Punjab, in an area of ​​around 360,000 square kilometers. She also wrote elementary books; some include illustrations by John Lockwood Kipling , Rudyard Kipling's father.

Flora Annie Steel openly criticized the inefficiency of the British authorities and the corruption prevailing there . An Indian Civil Service officer then asked her husband to call his wife to order. In return, Henry Steel suggested to his superiors that they take his wife for a month and try to do so themselves. In addition, her efforts to set up girls' schools also made her unpopular with traditional Muslims and Hindus . In spite of all this, she remained a memsahib with all its contradictions and a staunch advocate of British rule over India, even if she criticized the manner in which it was ruled.

In 1884 Flora Annie Steel published her first book ( Wide Awake Stories ), a collection of Indian folk tales. From 1889, after her husband and the couple had retired to Scotland, she began to write seriously, primarily short stories. Most of her stories appeared in Macmillan's Magazine and made her popular as a writer, as did a series of historical-romantic stories set in the Mughal Empire . Her most popular stories have been published in two edited volumes. In total, she published around 30 books (including children's books), some of which were translated into German and other languages.

Her greatest success was On the Face of the Waters about the Indian uprising of 1857 , which - in her own words - sold "like hot cakes". Before writing this book, she returned to India alone for several months to do research and study records, which the local government allowed her. In her text she tried to portray both sides as fairly as possible. In her autobiography, towards the end of her life, she wrote that there was nothing sadder than the bloodthirsty tone of letters to the editor to the newspapers regarding the uprising, especially those from Christian clergy. She herself described it as "the greatest compliment she has ever received" that a reader, whose wife was killed in the uprising, told her that reading this book enabled him to forgive their murderers after 40 years.

Together with her friend Grace Gardiner, Steel wrote The Complete Indian Housekeeper and Cook (1890), a guide and cookbook for British women who had to run a household in India. Some chapters were translated into Hindu and the readers were invited to read these texts to their servants. This book, which ultimately promoted peaceful housekeeping with “dignity” and “decency” to support the empire , became very popular. Her collections of English Fairy Tales with illustrations by Arthur Rackham from 1916 were very well received by the public. Numerous editions were published, most recently in German in 2019.

Flora Annie Steel was active as a writer until the end of her life. Her husband died in 1923 and she died in 1929, shortly after she finished her autobiography The Garden of Fidelity .

"Female Kipling"

In the foreword to the book Flora Annie Steel: A Critical Study of an Unconventional Memsahib , edited by her, the linguist Susmita Roye took a critical look at the nickname “female Kipling”. The term was probably coined in a review of her book On the Face of the Waters . It is true that Steel and Kipling were very popular writers on India at the same time. While Kipling's name is still known, Flora Annie Steel's fame has fallen victim to the “gender-biased politics of canonization” (“gender-biased politics of canonization ”). While Kipling is almost synonymous with literature on India, Steel has all but disappeared. Steel had filled the literary gaps that Kipling had left.

The literary scholar LeeAnne Richardson wrote that Steel's idea of imperialism was that of cooperation instead of colonialism and was therefore a useful addition or a corrective to Kipling's views. Only the works of both together would result in a more complete picture. Roye also points out other British women authors from the 19th century who dealt with India and the situation of British women living there in their works. Steel was the only one who dealt with the living conditions of Indian women in her texts .

Publications (selection)

  • The Garden of Fidelity .
  • The King's message, a dream . 1884.
  • Tales of the Punjab, told by the people . 1894.
  • The Flower of Forgiveness . 1894.
  • On the Face of the Waters . 1897.
  • The Adventures of King Akbar . 1913. With illustrations by Byam Shaw .
  • English Fairy Tales . 1916. With illustrations by Arthur Rackham . German edition: English fairy tales . Anaconda, Cologne 2019, ISBN 978-3-7306-0720-6 .

literature

  • Daya Pathwardan: A Star of India: Flora Annie Steel, Her Works and Times . AV Giha Prakashan, Poona 1963.
  • Violet Powell: Flora Annie Steel: Novelist of India . Wm Collins & Sons, 1981, ISBN 978-0-434-59957-8 .
  • LeeAnne Richardson : New Woman and Colonial Adventure Fiction in Victorian Britain: Gender, Genre, and Empire . University Press of Florida, 2006, ISBN 978-0-8130-2944-3 .
  • Susmita Roye (Ed.): Flora Annie Steel: a critical study of an unconventional Memsahib . University of Alberta Press, Edmondon 2017, ISBN 978-1-77212-260-2 .

Web links

Commons : Flora Annie Steel  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Flora Annie Steel  - Sources and full texts (English)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Flora Annie Steel: The Female Kipling? In: Dangerous Women Project. November 8, 2016, accessed February 1, 2020 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h Ralph Crane / Anna Johnston: Flora Annie Steel in the Punjab . In: Peter Hume / Russell McDougall (eds.): Writing, Travel, and Empire . IB Tauris, London 2007, ISBN 978-1-84511-304-9 , pp. 71-95 .
  3. ^ A b c d e Mary A. Procida: Steel, Flora Annie (1847–1929). In: encyclopedia.com. January 14, 2020, accessed on February 1, 2020 .
  4. ↑ a b Susmita Roye: Flora Annie Steel . ISBN 978-1-772-12324-1 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
personal data
SURNAME Steel, Flora Annie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Webster, Flora Annie (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British author
DATE OF BIRTH April 2, 1847
PLACE OF BIRTH Harrow-on-the-Hill
DATE OF DEATH April 12, 1929
Place of death Minchinhampton