JEWSBURY
The Collected Writings of Geraldine Jewsbury (1812-1880)

Geraldine Jewsbury was a leading figure in the Victorian literary world - as a reviewer, a publisher's reader and as a literary hostess. Whilst living in Manchester (where she was housekeeper for her brother Frank) she held fashionable parties that attracted friends such as the Kingsleys, the Rosettis, Lady Morgan, Lady Llanover, Helena Faucit, Viscountess Combermere, Ruskin, Huxley, Froude and Bright, becoming respected amongst both women and men.

She met Jane Carlyle in 1841 and the two became firm friends, regular correspondents, and conspirators against the forces of a society that placed them in gender specific roles.

Her own writings deserve attention and can now be read and enjoyed again. This project includes all of Jewsbury's book-length works including Zoe: the history of two lives (1845) - one of the earliest Victorian novels to explore religious scepticism; The half-sisters (1848), arguably her finest work, exploring existential questions and contrasting the focussed and fulfilled life of an actress with the hum-drum existence of a manufacturer's wife; Marian Withers (1851) - which was heavily influenced by Saint-Simonian ideas; Constance Herbert (1855); The sorrows of gentility (1856); as well as A selection from the letters of Geraldine Jewsbury to Jane Welsh Carlyle (1892).