Hannah More in Context

243 Pages·2022·7.777 MB·English

by  Sue Edney, Kerri Andrews

Routledge Studies in Eighteenth-Century Literature
HANNAH MORE IN CONTEXT
Edited by
Kerri Andrews and Sue Edney
Hannah More in Context
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.
Kerri Andrews is a Reader in Women’s Literature and Textual Editing at
Edge Hill University, UK.
Sue Edney is a Lecturer at Bristol University, UK.
Routledge Studies in Eighteenth-Century Literature
Before Crusoe
Defoe, Voice, and the Ministry
Penny Pritchard
Moral Cupidity and Lettres de Cachet in Diderot’s Writing
Jennifer Vanderheyden
Nation-Space in Enlightenment Britain
An Archaeology of Empire
Mita Choudhury
Castration, Impotence, and Emasculation in the Long Eighteenth Century
Anne Greenfield
Marie Jeanne Riccoboni’s Epistolary Feminism
Fact, Fiction, and Voice
Marijn S. Kaplan
Alexander Pope in the Reign of Queen Anne
Reconsiderations of his Early Career
Edited by A. D. Cousins and Daniel Derrin
A Spy on Eliza Haywood
Addresses to a Multifarious Writer
Edited by Aleksondra Hultquist and Chris Mounsey
Narrating Cultural Encounter
Representation of India in Select Enlightenment Women Writers
Arnab Chatterjee
Hannah More in Context
Edited by Kerri Andrews and Sue Edney
For more information on this series, please visit https://www.routledge.com/
Routledge-Studies-in-Eighteenth-Century-Literature/book-series/RSECL
Hannah More in Context
Edited by Kerri Andrews and
Sue Edney
First published 2022
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an
informa business
© 2022 selection and editorial matter, Kerri Andrews and Sue
Edney; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Kerri Andrews and Sue Edney to be identified as the
authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their
individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections
77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Andrews, Kerri, editor. | Edney, Sue, editor.
Title: Hannah More in context / edited by Kerri Andrews and Sue
Edney.
Description: New York, NY : Routledge, 2022. | Series: Routledge
studies in eighteenth-century literature | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021034920
Subjects: LCSH: More, Hannah, 1745-1833‐‐Criticism and
interpretation. | English literature‐‐Women authors‐‐History and
criticism. | English literature‐‐18th century‐‐History and criticism.
| Women and literature‐‐England‐‐History‐‐18th century. |
Authors, English‐‐18th century‐‐Biography. | Women
philanthropists‐‐Great Britain‐‐Biography.
Classification: LCC PR3605.M6 Z68 2022 | DDC 828/.609
[B]‐‐dc23/eng/20211013
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021034920
ISBN: 978-0-367-55320-3 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-18296-4 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-09297-1 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003092971
Typeset in Sabon
by MPS Limited, Dehradun
Contents
List of Figures vii
Acknowledgements viii
Contributor Biographies ix
Introduction: Hannah More in Context 1
KERRI ANDREWS AND SUE EDNEY
1 Tongues in Trees: Hannah More and the Nature
Inscription 14
ROBIN JARVIS
2 Feeling Good: Sentimental Virtue in Hannah More’s
The Search After Happiness (1773) and
“Sensibility” (1782) 34
ROSE HILTON
3 Defending “Reason’s rein”: Rationalism as
Persuasive Strategy in Hannah More’s Slavery: A
Poem (1788) 50
ADAM BRIDGEN
4 Writing Women at Work 68
MAEVE ADAMS
5 “Hunger is not a postponable want”: Hannah
More’s charity reconsidered 84
KERRI ANDREWS
vi Contents
6 Hannah More’s Percy, A Tragedy in the Spanish
and French Theatrical Contexts 100
BEGOÑA LASA-ÁLVAREZ
7 Bluestocking and Preacher: The Bifurcated
Reception of Hannah More in Scandinavia 114
MARIE NEDREGOTTEN SØRBØ
8 Hannah More’s Sympathetic Strategies: Cœlebs in
Search of a Wife and the Evangelical Novel 130
NICKY LLOYD
9 Books and Readers in Hannah More’s Cœlebs in
Search of a Wife 148
JOANNA MACIULEWICZ
10 Manuscripts and Books 162
NICHOLAS D. SMITH
11 Bringing More to the Fore: Championing the life
and work of Hannah More in Schools and
Community Education 181
JO EDWARDS
12 Hannah More’s Energetic Sociality: Enthusiasms
and Consequences 195
PATRICIA DEMERS
Extended Sermon on Hannah More 213
PAULA HOLLINGSWORTH
Index 224
Figures
1.1 Belmont House (south front) today. Photo: Robin Jarvis 16
1.2 One of the poetry boards on the Hannah More poetry
walk at Tyntesfield (National Trust) in 2018. Photo:
Robin Jarvis 19
1.3 Transcript of More’s “Stop traveller” poem in an album
of verse belonging to Dora Wordsworth. Dove Cottage,
the Wordsworth Trust 22
1.4 Cenotaph dedicated to Joseph Farell in the grounds at
Belmont, with epitaph by Hannah More. Photo: Robin
Jarvis 31
Acknowledgements
This volume emerged from a wonderfully friendly and convivial
conference held at Hannah More’s former home, Barley Wood, in
June 2019. The editors are extremely grateful to all the participants to
that event whose energy made this collection of essays inevitable, and
immensely pleasurable to work on. The opportunity to collaborate with
such a varied group of scholars, all of whom offer illuminating insights
into More’s life and works, has been a joy.
We are particularly grateful to Patricia Demers, who not only
graciously agreed to act as a plenary speaker at the conference in 2019
but also helped steer this collection to the press in the final weeks when
life events intervened (in the form of one baby and one protracted house
move). Her energy, scholarship and wisdom have been invaluable.
Our thanks also go to Holly Piper and Gary the Caretaker at Barley
Wood; Revd David Gent and the congregation of All Saints Church,
Wrington; Alison Duncan; Adam Robinson; and Mitchell Manners and
the production team at Routledge. Special thanks go to our friends and
family members, without whom there would be no relaxing walks
and no dinners.
Contributor Biographies
Maeve Adams is an Associate Professor of English at Manhattan College
in New York City. She is currently completing a book project entitled
The Rhetoric of Resistance: Persuasion and Protest in Romantic and
Victorian Literature, Social Science and Politics. Her published work
has appeared in ELH: English Literary History, Nineteenth-Century
Contexts, Nineteenth-Century Gender Studies, the British Writers
Supplement and several edited collections.
Begoña Lasa Álvarez is a Lecturer at the Faculty of Education
(Universidade da Coruña), and holds a PhD on the Spanish reception
of eighteenth-century English novels by women. Her academic inter-
ests focus on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century women writers, lit-
erary and cultural interchanges between English-speaking countries
and Spain, and English language and literature teaching. These are
also her main areas of publication, with articles and book chapters in
international journals. She has also published a monograph entitled
Novelistas británicas del siglo XVIII en España (Arcibel 2017).
Kerri Andrews is a Reader in Women’s Literature and Textual Editing at
Edge Hill University. She is the General Editor of The Letters of
Hannah More: A Digital Edition, and Chair of the Trustees of the
Hannah More Trust, which aims to increase knowledge of More, her
life and works. She has written widely on women’s writing in the
eighteenth century and beyond; her monograph Wanderers: A History
of Women Walking (Reaktion) was published in 2020, and she is
currently editing Nan Shepherd’s letters for Edinburgh University
Press (2023), for which she holds a British Academy Mid-Career
Fellowship. Her writing has appeared in The Guardian and a number
of walking and adventure magazines.
Adam Bridgen is a Research Fellow in Eighteenth-Century Literature and
Culture at the University of St. Andrews. His research centres on British
labouring-class poetry and explores the influence of social class and
religion on writing about slavery, empire, and the environment. His
explorations of the relationship between the shoemaker-poet James