Letters and Lives of the Tennyson Women

Marion Sherwood, Rosalind Boyce

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9781350168244
• eBook ISBN: 9781350168268
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: English Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

Contradicting common perception of them as mere footnotes in Tennyson's career, this book examines the influence of his strong-minded female forebears on the young poet and reveals that the women in Tennyson's family circle were prolific and engaging correspondents. Their letters, preserved in archives in Lincoln and for the most part unpublished, cast a unique light on the Tennyson family's interrelationships and the times in which they lived.

Focusing on the letters and lives of four Tennyson women – the poet's paternal grandmother, Mary Tennyson (1753-1825), her daughters Elizabeth Russell (1776-1865) and Mary Bourne (1777-1864), and her daughter-in-law Frances Tennyson, later Tennyson d'Eyncourt (1787-1878) - this book includes extensive and annotated extracts from the women's letters, linked by narrative passages providing context and continuity. The case studies cover six decades, from the marriage of Mary Turner and George Tennyson in 1775 to the death of George Tennyson in 1835, with brief Afterwords touching on the women's final years.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title Page
• Title Page
• Contents
• List of Figures
• Timeline
• Tennyson Family Tree
• Acknowledgements
• Preface
• Introduction: Touching the past (Marion Sherwood)
• 1 ‘When I receive your letters I feel that inward Joy unspeakable’: Mary Turner Tennyson’s letters to her mother, 1775 to 1804
• 2 ‘The tenderest and best of Husbands’: Mary Turner Tennyson and George Tennyson, 1775 to 1825
• 3 ‘Star of the North’: Elizabeth Tennyson Russell, 1776 to 1865
• 4 Mother and sons: Mary Turner Tennyson, George Clayton Tennyson and Charles Tennyson, 1778 to 1825
• 5 ‘A delicate, pretty girl’: Frances Mary Hutton Tennyson, 1787 to 1878
• 6 ‘Your truly affectionate Old Aunt Bourne’: Mary Tennyson Bourne, 1777 to 1864
• Conclusion: ‘The noble letters of the dead’ (Marion Sherwood)
• Bibliography
• Index
• Copyright Page