Life
1851-1920 [Mrs Thomas Humphry; née Mary Augusta Arnold]; b. Hobart,
Tasmania, oldest of 8 children of Thomas Arnold and niece of Mathew Arnold;
her father converted to Catholicism and taught at Catholic University,
Dublin after brief emigration to Tasmania, and later reconverted and taught
at Oxford; raised chiefly in English Lake District; studied independently
at Bodleian Library; leading authority on early Spanish literature and
history; issued numerous novels incl. Robert Elsmere (1888), a
story of religious doubt in Victorian society, high and low, and Marcella
(1894), a novel of social philanthropy; Sir George Tressady (1898),
a sequel. IF SUTH
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Works
The Story of Bessie Costrell (London: Smith, Elder 1895), 140pp; Marcella
(London: Smith, Elder; Leipzig: Bernard Tauchnitz 1894); Sir George
Tressady (London: Smith, Elder 1896); Daphne, or Marriage a la
Mode (London: Cassell 1909), 315pp.;.
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Notes
Elaine Showalter, A Literature of their Own (1984),
bio-note: Mary Augusta, Mrs Humphry Ward, 1851-1920; b. Hobart, Tasmania,
oldest of 8 children of Thomas Arnold; anti-suffrage; best known for Robert
Elsmere (1888).
John Sutherland, Companion to Victorian Fiction (London: Longmans 1988): Marcella (1894), a tale of social philanthropy in which Marcella Boyce, art student and Venturist [Fabian], dg. of the heir of Mellor Park, becomes engaged to conservative son of Lord Maxwell, Aldous Raeburn, and is driven apart from him when a starving tenant poacher is hanged for killing the gamekeeper; she subsequently does social work in East End, attaches to a strike-supporting newspaper magnate, but reunites with Aldous when the other sells out to the factory owners; Sir George Tressady (1898) is a sequel.
Eric Stevens Cat. No. 168 (1992) lists not to be confused with Mrs Wilfrid
Ward, author of One Poor Scruple (Tabb House 1895; rep. 1899 ed.),
intro. Bernard Bergonzi, xiii, 385pp. [novel of society and Catholic landed
gentry in 19th c. [£6.]
Daphne, or Marriage a la Mode (London: Cassell 1909), 315pp.; The Story of Bessie Costrell (London: Smith, Elder 1895), 140pp. [both held by Victorian Women Writers Project (Indiana Univ.) website.
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)