Charlotte Riddell

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Standard Name: Riddell, Charlotte
Birth Name: Charlotte Elizabeth Lawson Cowan
Pseudonym: Rainey Hawthorne
Pseudonym: R. V. M. Sparling
Pseudonym: F. G. Trafford
Married Name: Charlotte Elizabeth Lawson Riddell
Married Name: Mrs J. H. Riddell
Indexed Name: Charlotte Elizabeth L. Riddell
CR was a prolific professional novelist and story writer during the latter half of the nineteenth century. She published forty novels, plus tales (in journals, annuals, and her own collections), two travel books, and essays in periodicals. She was best-known in her own day for her domestic novels, sensation novels, and local and mystery novels. She has become more prominent in recent times for her highly-regarded ghost stories. She is unusual both in her depictions of the male-only business and financial aspects of London life, and in choosing lyrical country settings from the immediate area of London, both to the north-east and the south-west.
"Historic Buildings of the London Borough of Haringey" green plaque at St Ann's Hospital, Tottenham, London, reading: "Charlotte Riddell 1832-1906 Gothic novelist lived at 'St John's Lodge' that once stood here 1863-1873."

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
politics F. Mabel Robinson
FMR became deeply interested in political debates and struggles around the issue of home rule for Ireland, and went so far as to carry secret messages back and forth between England and Ireland. This...
Publishing Jessie Fothergill
The copyright of the novel initially sold for £40 on 26 March 1877. Two months later, Richard Bentley and Son recognized its commercial possibilities and drew up a new contract, increasing the price to £200...
Textual Features Dorothy L. Sayers
Here she mounts a powerful appreciation of the novel, both for its importance in the development of the detective story (all the clues, she says, are clearly conveyed to the reader, something which seldom happened...
Textual Features Anne Thackeray Ritchie
ATR wrote frequently on lesser-known female writers. The collected essays in From an Island include, in addition to the piece on Austen , one on Heroines and Their Grandmothers which contrasts the cheerful heroines of...

Timeline

1860s: During this decade, annuals became associated...

Writing climate item

1860s

During this decade, annuals became associated with ghost stories, exemplified in works by Amelia B. Edwards and Charlotte Riddell .
Boyle, Andrew. An Index to the Annuals. Andrew Boyle, 1967.
Collins, Arthur Simons. The Profession of Letters: A Study of the Relation of Author to Patron, Publisher, and Public, 1780-1832. George Routledge and Sons, 1928.
Eliot, George, and Felicia Bonaparte. Middlemarch. Editor Carroll, David, Oxford University Press, 1997.
Brown, Susan I. “The Victorian Poetess”. The Cambridge Companion to Victorian Poetry, Cambridge University Press, 2000, pp. 180-02.
Renier, Anne. Friendship’s Offering: An Essay on the Annuals and Gift Books of the Nineteenth Century. Private Libraries Association, 1964, http://University of Toronto (Robarts).
Linley, Margaret. “A Centre That Would Not Hold: Annuals and Cultural Democracy”. Nineteenth-Century Media and the Construction of Identities, St Martin’s Press, 2000, pp. 54-74.

Texts

Riddell, Charlotte. A Life’s Assize. Tinsley Brothers, 1871, 3 vols.
Riddell, Charlotte. A Mad Tour. R. Bentley, 1891.
Riddell, Charlotte. A Struggle for Fame. R. Bentley and Son, 1883, 3 vols.
Riddell, Charlotte. Austin Friars. Tinsley Brothers, 1870, 3 vols.
Riddell, Charlotte. Berna Boyle. R. Bentley and Son, 1884, 3 vols.
Riddell, Charlotte et al. “Fairy Water: A Christmas Story”. Routledge’s Christmas Annual, Routledge, 1873.
Riddell, Charlotte. Far above Rubies. Tinsley Brothers, 1867, 3 vols.
Riddell, Charlotte. For Dick’s Sake. Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1886.
Riddell, Charlotte. Frank Sinclair’s Wife, and Other Stories. Tinsley Brothers, 1874, 3 vols.
Riddell, Charlotte. George Geith of Fen Court. Tinsley Brothers, 1864, 3 vols.
Riddell, Charlotte. Handsome Phil, and Other Stories. F. V. White, 1899.
Riddell, Charlotte. Idle Tales. Ward and Downey, 1888.
Riddell, Charlotte. Maxwell Drewitt. Tinsley Brothers, 1865, 3 vols.
Riddell, Charlotte. Mortomley’s Estate. Tinsley Brothers, 1874, 3 vols.
Riddell, Charlotte. The Banshee’s Warning, and Other Tales. Remington, 1894.
Riddell, Charlotte. “The Disappearance of Mr. Jeremiah Redworth”. Routledge’s Christmas Annual, G. Routledge, 1878.
Riddell, Charlotte. The Footfall of Fate. F. V. White, 1900.
Riddell, Charlotte. “The Haunted River: A Christmas Story”. Routledge’s Christmas Annual, Routledge, 1878.
Riddell, Charlotte. The Head of the Firm. Heinemann, 1892, 3 vols.
Riddell, Charlotte. The Moors and the Fens. Smith, Elder, 1857, 3 vols.
Riddell, Charlotte. The Mystery in Palace Gardens. R. Bentley, 1880, 3 vols.
Riddell, Charlotte. The Nun’s Curse. Ward and Downey, 1888, 3 vols.
Riddell, Charlotte. The Race for Wealth. Tinsley Brothers, 1866, 3 vols.
Riddell, Charlotte. The Rich Husband. Charles Skeet, 1858, 3 vols.
Riddell, Charlotte. The Ruling Passion. R. Bentley, 1857, 3 vols.