The Castle of Wolfenbach by Eliza Parsons

The Castle of Wolfenbach by Eliza Parsons

Eliza Parsons, nee Phelp, (1739-1811) was an English gothic novelist. She was born in Plymouth to a comfortable middle class family and moved to London when her husband's turpentine business was affected by the American War of Independence. The family's fortunes were further debilitated by a warehouse fire and when he died in 1790, Eliza was left alone with eight children. She turned to novel writing to support her large family and produced 19 two volume novels, many of which were in the romantic or gothic vein so popular at the time. Her work is generally agreed to be of varying quality, produced as it was out of financial necessity to meet popular tastes but her two most enduring works are The Castle of Wolfenbach in 1793 and The Mysterious Warning: A German Tale in 1796. Her other works include: The History of Miss Meredith (1790), Women as They Are (1797), Anecdotes of Well-Known Families (1798) and The Valley of St. Gothard (1799).

Eliza Parsons was an English author who lived from 1739 until 1811. She was the only daughter of wine trader John Phelp and his wife Roberta, and was born in Plymouth, Devon. She grew up in relative affluence and had an education that was unusual for women at the time. Eliza married John Parsons in 1760 and had three boys and five daughters with him. Parsons' turpentine business suffered severe losses during the American Revolutionary War, forcing the family to live in poverty.

Eliza stepped in to provide for their children after a warehouse fire devastated his property and illness and death tore through their close-knit family. She published nineteen novels and a play between 1790 and 1807, particularly in the Gothic style prominent in late-nineteenth-century England and Europe. Despite the fact that she lacked recognition and financial security, she proved to be a reliable and skillful writer, garnering moderate praise for her work The Castle of Wolfenbach (1793). Notwithstanding her numerous apologies for her writing in the prefaces to her books--which she mostly used to appeal to readers on behalf of her children--Parsons was a great writer of engaging fiction and a pioneering character in English literary history.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780977784165
ISBN 10	0977784169
Title	The Castle of Wolfenbach
Author	Eliza Parsons
Series	Gothic Classics Ser
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Valancourt Books
Year published	2006-08-23
Number of pages	224
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.