This book relocates the long life and literary career of the poet, playwright, novelist, philanthropist and teacher Hannah More (1745-1833) in the wider social and cultural contexts that shaped her, and which she helped shape in turn. One of the most influential writers and campaigners of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, More’s reputation has suffered unfairly from accusations of paternalism and provincialism, and misunderstandings of her sincerely-held but now increasingly unfamiliar evangelical beliefs. Now, in this book, readers can explore a range of essays rooted in up-to-the-minute research which examines newly-recovered archival materials and other evidence in order to present the fullest picture yet of this complex and compelling author, and the era she helped mould with her words.
Author(s): Sue Edney, Kerri Andrews
Series: Routledge Studies in Eighteenth-Century Literature
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 242
Cover
Half Title
Series Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Contents
Figures
Acknowledgements
Contributor Biographies
Introduction: Hannah More in Context
Works Cited
Archive Sources
1. Tongues in Trees: Hannah More and the Nature Inscription
Turner, More and Belmont
More's Nature Inscriptions
More's Epitaphic Turn
Conclusion
Acknowledgements
Works Cited
Archive Sources
2. Feeling Good: Sentimental Virtue in Hannah More's The Search After Happiness (1773) and "Sensibility" (1782)
The Search After Happiness and "Sensibility"
Defining Sensibility and Sentiment
Sentiment and Sensibility in the Context of Philosophy and Medical Theory
Reading More in the Context of Medical and Philosophical Thought
The Search After Sensibility: Analysing More - The Couplet Form
Somatic Expression and Medicalisation
Authenticity in Action
Sensible Piety
Conclusion
Works Cited
3. Defending "Reason's rein": Rationalism as Persuasive Strategy in Hannah More's Slavery: A Poem (1788)
"For no fictitious ills these numbers flow": More's Rationalist Approach
"Reason's palpable abuse": Slavery and the Corruption of Reason
Conclusion
Works Cited
Archive Sources
4. Writing Women at Work
Women at Work in Hannah More's Economic Bildungsroman
Writing as Work in Bas Bleu and "Sensibility"
Conclusion
Works Cited
5. "Hunger is not a postponable want": Hannah More's charity reconsidered
West Country Philanthropy
Shipham and Rowberrow
Hannah More and the withering of Bristol brass
Conclusions
Works Cited
Archive Sources
6. Hannah More's Percy, A Tragedy in the Spanish and French Theatrical Contexts
France: De Belloy's Gabrielle de Vergy
England: More's Percy
France: Abbé Yart's Translation
Spain: Carnerero's Elvina y Perci, ó los efectos de la violencia
Works Cited
7. Bluestocking and Preacher: The Bifurcated Reception of Hannah More in Scandinavia
Increasing import of foreign literature
The intellectual Englishwoman as model for Scandinavians
The English paradise is wanted in the North
Nordic translations compared to the continental and global scene
Scandinavian evangelicalism and translations of More
The scarcity of Scandinavian readers
Preacher and Bluestocking
Works Cited
8. Hannah More's Sympathetic Strategies: Cœlebs in Search of a Wife and the Evangelical Novel
"Continually shifting their ground": More, Sensibility and the Novel
"General converse, and accurate observation of the living world": Cœlebs's Sympathetic Realism
"Borrowed from a work of great and deserved celebrity": Imitating Cœlebs
Works Cited
9. Books and Readers in Hannah More's Cœlebs in Search of a Wife
Works Cited
10. Manuscripts and Books
More's papers
More's letter-writing: Theory and Practice
Preparation, Publication and Reception of Roberts's Memoirs
Letters
Literary Manuscripts
Books
Conclusion
Works Cited
Archival Sources
Primary Printed Sources
Secondary Works
11. Bringing More to the fore: Championing the life and work of Hannah More in schools and community education
Context
Working with schools
Schools' sessions for older students
Community education
Conclusion
Works Cited
Archive and Government Sources
12. Hannah More's Energetic Sociality: Enthusiasms and Consequences
The Ambitious Apprentice
Public Crusader
Saintly Retiree
Works Cited
Extended Sermon on Hannah More
The Bristol School
London Fame and Influence
Evangelicalism
The Campaign against the Slave Trade
Writings about Education and Manners
The Mendip Schools
Novel Writing
Devotional Books
Works Cited
Index
