Cannonball Read 13

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Search This Site

| Log in
  1. Follow us on Facebook
  2. Follow us on Twitter
  3. Follow us on Instagram
  4. Follow us on Goodreads
  5. RSS Feeds

  • Home
  • About
    • About CBR
    • Getting Started
    • Cannon Book Club
    • Diversions
    • Event Calendar
    • Fan Mail
    • Holiday Book Exchange
    • Book Bingo Reading Challenge
    • Participation Badges
    • AlabamaPink
  • Our Team
    • Leaderboard
    • The CBR Team
    • Recent Comments
    • CBR Interviews
    • Our Volunteers
    • Meet MsWas
  • Categories
    • Review Genres
    • Tags
  • Fight Cancer
    • How We Fight Cancer
    • How You Can Donate
    • Book Sale
    • CBR Merchandise
    • Supporters and Friends of CBR
  • FAQ
  • Contact
    • Contact Form
    • Newsletter Sign Up
    • Newsletter Archive
    • Follow Us
> FAQ Home
> Genre: Biography/Memoir > Girlfriend Had a LIFE.

Girlfriend Had a LIFE.

The True History of the First Mrs. Meredith and Other Lesser Lives by Diane Johnson

September 24, 2020 by elderberrywine Leave a Comment

That’s her on the cover, lower left hand corner. The first Mrs. George Meredith, nee Mary Ellen Peacock. This biography, written in 1972 by early feminist Diane Johnson, is wonderfully quirky and fascinating.

Mary Ellen, to give her the only name that was truly hers, was not famous in her own right, but was what I’d call famous-adjacent. Her father was the Romantic poet Thomas Love Peacock, who, whilst rambling about Wales in search of dramatic scenery, met Jane Gryffydh, daughter of a vicar of a tiny Welsh village. She was good-looking, somewhat well-read, and was acceptable company for a week or two, but then he left. Eight years later, with no correspondence in the meantime, he returned to marry her. And she was in her late twenties, living in poverty with her widowed mother and facing the life of an old maid, so she accepted. By the time Mary Ellen was a young girl, her mother had gone mad, and was sent off a la Jane Eyre. Not long after, she was dead.

Mary grew up in the writer’s circle consisting of her father and many of the Shelly/Byron contingent, dabbling a bit herself. She married a naval officer who drowned three months later, but not before helping create baby Edith. For several years, she was comfortably well off as a widow, and helped start up and write for some small literary magazines, and in the process, met the much younger George Meredith.

Eventually, she relented and married him (baby Arthur!), but before too long, they had drifted apart. However, she had met the painter Henry Wallis by then, and they went off to Wales together (baby Felix!) and remained together off and on for the rest of her life, which was not long. She died at forty from renal disease.

The fascinating thing about her is that she apparently did what she wanted, with whom she wanted, and could give a toss about the Victorian mores of her time. She loved babies, even though she wasn’t always allowed to keep them (poor Arthur ended up having a fairly unhappy life). She wrote and was published, even though Some Guy’s name was frequently attached instead of hers. She started a cooking school, rather unheard of at the time, that flourished. And I love the picture of her because that is the woman (in her late 30’s at the time) that I absolutely can imagine, going about her way.

A fun read. She might have had a short life, but she got every bit she could out of it.

 

 

Filed Under: Biography/Memoir, History, Non-Fiction Tagged With: Diane Johnson, feminism, Victoria writers, Victorian artists

elderberrywine's CBR12 Review No:13 · Genres: Biography/Memoir, History, Non-Fiction · Tags: Diane Johnson, feminism, Victoria writers, Victorian artists ·
· 0 Comments

About elderberrywine

CBR13 participantCBR12 participantCBR11 participantCBR10 participant

Elder LOTR/Holmes fan girl/writer since forever. View elderberrywine's reviews»

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.



Recent Comments

  • Bothari43 on Practicing What You PreachThis sounds bonkers! I've only read one of his other books, and I can't remember which one it was. I should read more!
  • Bothari43 on New Year, New Me – Book 1!Welcome back! I didn't know Nora Roberts did standalone books. How will you ever know how Luke and Roxy's neighbors, cousins, and baristas find love...
  • narfna on Dresden’s very long list of things to do and the best quote, “Home is where you embrace the present and plan the future.  It’s where the books are.”For me, the Ebenezer stuff really got to me, and it was the backbone of the book. (I wrote, like, 3000 words on it in...
  • Dome'Loki on Dresden’s very long list of things to do and the best quote, “Home is where you embrace the present and plan the future.  It’s where the books are.”To be honest, their relationship is kind of exhausting at this point. Dresden making his reveal was long overdue, imho. Ebenezer, and the whole White...
  • narfna on Dresden’s very long list of things to do and the best quote, “Home is where you embrace the present and plan the future.  It’s where the books are.”I'm curious what you thought of his relationship with Ebenezer here. Also, kitty cuddles! I'm melting!
See More Recent Comments »

Want to Help Out?

CBR has a great crew of volunteers, and we're always looking for more people to help out. If you have a specialty or are willing to learn, drop MsWas a line.

  • How You Can Donate
  • FAQ
  • Shop
  • Volunteers
  • Leaderboard
  • AlabamaPink
  • Contact

Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo
  3. Google Pay
© 2021 Cannonball Read | Log in