Mary Louisa Molesworth,néeStewart (29 May 1839 – 20 January 1921) was an English writer ofchildren's stories who wrote for children under the name ofMrs Molesworth.[1] Her first novels, for adult readers,Lover and Husband (1869) toCicely (1874), appeared under the pseudonym ofEnnis Graham. Her name occasionally appears in print asM. L. S. Molesworth.[2]
Molesworth was born inRotterdam, a daughter of Charles Augustus Stewart (1809–1873), who later became a rich merchant inManchester, and his wife Agnes Janet Wilson (1810–1883). Mary had three brothers and two sisters. She was educated in Great Britain and Switzerland, and much of her girlhood was spent in Manchester. In 1861 she married Major R. Molesworth, nephew ofViscount Molesworth; theylegally separated in 1879.[3] She lived for an early part of her marriage in Tabley Grange, outside Knutsford in Cheshire, rented fromGeorge, 2nd Lord de Tabley.[4]
Mary Louisa Molesworth typified late Victorian writing for girls. Aimed at girls too old for fairies and princesses but too young forAusten and theBrontës, books by Molesworth had their share of amusement, but they also had a good deal of moral instruction. The girls reading Molesworth would grow up to be mothers; thus, the books emphasized Victorian notions of duty and self-sacrifice.[6]
Typical of the time, her young characters often use alisping style, and words may be misspelt to represent children's speech—"jography" for geography, for instance.
She also took an interest insupernatural fiction. In 1888, she published a collection of supernatural tales under the titleFour Ghost Stories, and in 1896 a similar collection of six stories under the titleUncanny Tales. In addition to those, her volumeStudies and Stories includes aghost story entitled "Old Gervais" and herSummer Stories for Boys and Girls includes "Not exactly a ghost story."[7][8]
A new edition ofThe Cuckoo Clock was published in 1914.
Agatha Christie mentionsThe Tapestry Room andFour Winds Farm in her novelPostern of Fate, as childhood favourites of her detectives Tommy and Tuppence.
InThe Whirling Shapes byJoan North,Two Little Waifs by Mrs. Molesworth is mentioned as a book (Great-)Aunt Hilda was given by her father on her eighth birthday.
^Browning, D. C., comp. (1958)Everyman's Dictionary of Literary Biography; English & American. London: Dent; pp. 477-78
^Lancelyn Green, Roger (1961).Mrs Molesworth. London: Bodley Head. p. 25.
^Green, Roger Lancelyn, "The Golden Age of Children's Literature," in: Sheila Egoff, G. T. Stubbs, and L. F. Ashley, eds.,Only Connect: Readings on Children's Literature, New York, Oxford University Press; second edition, 1980; pp. 9-10.
^One item in a prose column states, "A new novel by Mrs. Molesworth ("Ennis Graham"), the author ofThe Cuckoo Clock, &c., will be published in a few days ..." (The Academy, 23 Feb 1878, p. 166). One listing in "Hurst & Blackett's New Works", annotated "[8 March.", uses the same byline, "By ... &c." (The Spectator, 2 Mar 1878, p292).
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Molesworth, Mary Louisa".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 18 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 660.
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