Harriet Martineau: Introduction

Abstract

Harriet Martineau (1802-1876) enjoyed enormous popularity during her life. Over a half-century career, hers was an authoritative voice in the literary world. Although by the mid-1840s she had exchanged London’s intellectual center for the bucolic peace of the Lake District, Martineau’s influence continued through the 1870s, with renewed interest generated by the posthumous publication of her Autobiography (1877). Subsequently, Martineau all but disappeared from literary history, until a compelling revival of interest— stimulated by second-wave-feminist criticism—illustrated once again that this writer, far from anachronistic, was not only ahead of her time but, in some respects, ours as well. This collection presents new scholarship on various aspects of Martineau’s work, ranging from comparative theology to her sociology of charity; from the political economy of environmentalism and financial speculation to private and public health; and from Irish critics’ lively reception history to her portrayal of white women in the Antebellum South.