Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Frances Power Cobbe
-
Standard Name: Cobbe, Frances Power
Birth Name: Frances Power Cobbe
Nickname: Fan
Nickname: Fanny
Pseudonym: C.
Pseudonym: F.
Pseudonym: F. P. C.
Pseudonym: Only a Woman
Pseudonym: Merlin Nostradamus
Used Form: Miss Cobbe
As one of the most prominent Victorian writers of non-fiction prose, and the only feminist of the period who wrote regularly in periodicals, FPC
published prolifically in a range of genres from reportage and travel writing to social criticism, theology, and ethics. As a professional journalist she wrote more than a hundred periodical essays, and above a thousand anonymous newspaper leaders. She published, at a conservative estimate, eighteen books and innumerable tracts. A key figure in the Victorian women's movement, she produced ground-breakingly trenchant as well as frequently witty analyses of women's social and political disabilities, representing womanly duty as feminist praxis. All her social writings are grounded in her life-long effort to promulgate a nondenominational theistic system of ethics. In her later career she dedicated herself to fighting animal vivisection (a cause she characterized as an abolitionist crusade analogous to anti-slavery) and the campaign against the Contagious Diseases Acts. For the anti-vivisection campaign alone she produced considerable journalism and at least two hundred tracts. Her theology, ethics, feminism, and anti-vivisection converged in her argument that sympathy—beyond as well as within the human community—was an index of true civilisation.
Hamilton, Susan. “Locating Victorian Feminism: Frances Power Cobbe, Feminist Writing, and the Periodical Press”. Nineteenth-Century Feminisms, No. 2, 1 Mar. 2000– 2024, pp. 48-66.
48
Mitchell, Sally. Frances Power Cobbe: Victorian Feminist, Journalist, Reformer. University of Virginia Press, 2004.
She died at the Clinique Juillard before being seen by a doctor, and was buried in Geneva. Among the many who paid tribute to her were Arabella Shore
and Frances Power Cobbe
.
Blackburn, Helen. Women’s Suffrage. Facsimile Edition, Source Book Press, 1970.
186-7
death
Augusta Webster
Theodore Watts-Dunton
's tribute in the Athenæum recalled a noble band of women represented by George Eliot
, Mrs. Webster, and Miss Cobbe
, who, in virtue of lofty purpose, purity of soul, and deep...
Dedications
Catharine Amy Dawson Scott
CADS
was the first poet to be published by Heinemann
. The book was dedicated to F. P. C.in reverent affection and admiration:
Scott, Catharine Amy Dawson. Idylls of Womanhood. Heinemann, 1892.
prelims
presumably this is the prominent feminist activist Frances Power Cobbe
Education
Anna Kingsford
She had been inspired to discover more about medical research after publishing an anti-vivisection letter from Frances Power Cobbe
in her journal, The Lady's Own Paper.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
In preparation for her studies, AK
dabbled with...
After the riot, the women received support from several notable people, including Frances Power Cobbe
and Harriet Martineau
. Martineau supported SJB
into the future as well: she sent her a small monetary contribution aimed...
Friends, Associates
Jessie Boucherett
Partly through her membership of the Kensington Society
(a social and political discussion group of about fifty women inaugurated in 1865), JB
broadened her acquaintance with significant members of the feminist movement, including Frances Power Cobbe
Friends, Associates
Emily Faithfull
As a member of the Langham Place GroupEF
counted most of the women activists of the day among her friends. Her far-flung circle of associates included Adelaide Procter
and Frances Power Cobbe
.
Stone, James S. Emily Faithfull: Victorian Champion of Women’s Rights. P. D. Meany, 1994.
183, 16
Friends, Associates
Fanny Kemble
While they were both in London, Henry James
visited FK
weekly. She was a friend from the later 1840s with Frances Power Cobbe
, from whose partner, Mary Lloyd
, she rented a house at...
Friends, Associates
Emily Faithfull
EF
suffered in various ways as a result of the trial. The sense that she had prevaricated, at the very least, alienated many of her associates on The English Woman's Journal, including Emily Davies
AK
's wide-ranging interests brought her into contact with an array of people known to a greater or lesser extent in the intellectual life of the day. Through the women's movement she met Barbara Bodichon
Friends, Associates
Anna Kingsford
AK
appears to have had a somewhat complicated relationship with Frances Power Cobbe
. Their association seems to have begun around 1872, when Kingsford moved to London and became an active member of the English...
Friends, Associates
Mary Carpenter
This house was bought for her by Lady Byron
, who also arranged for Carpenter's close friend and fellow activist Frances Power Cobbe
to move into Red Lodge with her in November that year. Cobbe...
Friends, Associates
Julia Wedgwood
As a direct result of such work, she became a friend of such women as Josephine Butler
and Frances Power Cobbe
.
Blain, Virginia et al., editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford, 1990.
Timeline
1752: Francis Coventry anonymously published The...
Writing climate item
1752
Francis Coventry
anonymously published The History of Pompey the Little; or, the life and adventures of a lap-dog, a novel à clef which satirizes Pompey's successive owners.
English Short Title Catalogue. http://estc.bl.uk/.
23 June 1849: Louisa Nottidge's relatives were were put...
Building item
23 June 1849
Louisa Nottidge
's relatives were were put on trial for confining her against her will in a lunatic asylum; she was awarded £50 damages.
Mitchell, Sally. Frances Power Cobbe: Victorian Feminist, Journalist, Reformer. University of Virginia Press, 2004.
72, 74
1850: The Royal Academy unleashed the full weight...
Haydn, Joseph. Haydn’s Dictionary of Dates and Universal Information. Editor Vincent, Benjamin, 21st ed., Ward, Lock and Bowden, 1895.
170, 535
Mitchell, Sally. Frances Power Cobbe: Victorian Feminist, Journalist, Reformer. University of Virginia Press, 2004.
166
June 1853: The Act for the Better Prevention of Aggravated...
National or international item
June 1853
The Act for the Better Prevention of Aggravated Assault Upon Women and Children made wife assault punishable by up to six months imprisonment or a £20 fine.
Emsley, Clive. Crime and Society in England 1750-1900. 2nd ed., Longman, 1996.
159
Cobbe, Frances Power. “Wife-Torture in England”. Contemporary Review, Vol.
32
, 1878, pp. 55-87.
76-7
3 November 1855: An advertisement marked the launch of the...
Writing climate item
3 November 1855
An advertisement marked the launch of the conservative (high Tory
and Anglo-Catholic
), weekly Saturday Review; it focused on Politics, Literature, Science, and Art.
Broomfield, Andrea. “Much More Than an Antifeminist: Eliza Lynn Linton’s Contribution to the Rise of Victorian Popular Journalism”. Victorian Literature and Culture, Vol.
29
, No. 2, 2001, pp. 267-83.
274
Sutherland, John, b. 1938. The Stanford Companion to Victorian Fiction. Stanford University Press, 1989.
553-4
Mitchell, Sally. Frances Power Cobbe: Victorian Feminist, Journalist, Reformer. University of Virginia Press, 2004.
153
16 April 1860: King Victor Emmanuel II made his triumphal...
Mitchell, Sally. Frances Power Cobbe: Victorian Feminist, Journalist, Reformer. University of Virginia Press, 2004.
132
British Library Catalogue. http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?dscnt=0&tab=local_tab&dstmp=1489778087340&vid=BLVU1&mode=Basic&fromLo.
1864: Unitarian and feminist Mentia Taylor formed...
Mitchell, Sally. Frances Power Cobbe: Victorian Feminist, Journalist, Reformer. University of Virginia Press, 2004.
152-3, 173
Hudson, Derek, and Arthur Joseph Munby. Munby, Man of Two Worlds. J. Murray, 1972.
218
August 1864: The English Woman's Journal, a practical...
Building item
August 1864
The English Woman's Journal, a practical and theoretical source of organized feminism from London, merged into The Alexandra Magazine and English Woman's Journal.
Blain, Virginia et al., editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford, 1990.
Cobbe, Frances Power. Darwinism in Morals, and Other Essays. Williams and Norgate, 1872.
Elliot, Margaret, and Frances Power Cobbe. Destitute Incurables in the Workhouses. James Nisbet, 1860.
Cobbe, Frances Power, and Frances Power Cobbe. “Editor’s Preface”. The Woman Question in Europe, edited by Theodore Stanton, Source Book Press, 1970, p. v - x.
Cobbe, Frances Power. Essays on the Pursuits of Women. Emily Faithfull, 1863.
Cobbe, Frances Power. Essays on the Pursuits of Women. Cambridge University Press, 2010, http://www.cambridge.org/series/sSeries.asp?code=CLOR.
Cobbe, Frances Power. Female Education, and How it Would be Affected by University Examinations. Emily Faithfull, 1862.
Cobbe, Frances Power. Friendless Girls, and How to Help Them. Emily Faithfull, 1861.
Cobbe, Frances Power. “Introduction”. The Woman Question in Europe, edited by Theodore Stanton, Source Book Press, 1970, p. xiii - xviii.
Cobbe, Frances Power. Italics: Brief Notes on Politics, People, and Places in Italy, in 1864. Trübner, 1864.
Cobbe, Frances Power. Life of Frances Power Cobbe. R. Bentley and Son, 1894, 2 vols.
Cobbe, Frances Power. Life of Frances Power Cobbe. Houghton, Mifflin, 1894, 2 vols.
Cobbe, Frances Power. “Social Science Congresses, and Women’s Part in Them”. Macmillan’s Magazine, Vol.
5
, 1861, pp. 81-94.
Cobbe, Frances Power. “Speech at the Women’s Suffrage Meeting, St. George’s Hall: 13 May 1876”. Before the Vote Was Won, edited by Jane Lewis, Routledge, 1987, pp. 264-8.
Cobbe, Frances Power. Studies New and Old of Ethical and Social Subjects. Trübner, 1865.
Cobbe, Frances Power. Studies New and Old of Ethical and Social Subjects. William V. Spencer, 1866.
Cobbe, Frances Power. The Cities of the Past. Trübner, 1864.
Parker, Theodore. The Collected Works of Theodore Parker. Editor Cobbe, Frances Power, Trübner, 1871, 14 vols.
Cobbe, Frances Power. The Confessions of a Lost Dog. Griffith and Farran, 1867.
Cobbe, Frances Power. The Duties of Women. G. H. Ellis, 1881.
Cobbe, Frances Power. The Duties of Women. Williams and Norgate, 1881.