Sarah Grand and The New Woman
While reading Tasha Alexander’s magnificent new mystery A Crimson Warning , I came across a name I had never heard before, that of novelist Sarah Grand. Alexander’s heroine, Lady Emily Hargreaves is notorious for her taste in literature that was deemed unhealthy for women. As soon as I read the name, I had to know more about her. Her name is almost forgotten; yet one hundred years ago she was regarded as a woman of genius. Today you won't find many of her books in the library, nor is she studied much in literature courses compared to the big guns of Victorian literature, Henry James, Anthony Trollope or Thomas Hardy. However, during her lifetime Sarah Grand was known for her radical ideas, daring style, and aggressive wit. She was also credited with coining the phrase, “The New Woman.” Sarah was born Frances Elizabeth Bellenden Clarke in Ireland, on June 10 1854. Her parents were English; her father was a coastguard commander who lived in a spacious mansion called Roseban...