Ethel Smyth's reputation is founded on her exploits and achievements as a composer, suffragette and autobiographer. Her most admired compositions are her

Mass in D

(1891) and the opera

The Wreckers

(1902-4). She was awarded honorary doctorates in music from Durham University (1910), Oxford (1926) and Manchester (1930) and an LLD from St Andrews in 1928. She was honoured as a Dame of the British Empire in 1922.

In her late fifties, while engaged in war-work as a radiographer in Paris, she began her ebullient and informative memoirs. Loss of hearing eventually curtailed musical composition but gave scope to her writing. Impressions That Remained (1919), the first of nine books, is the most successful. A contemporary review by Ernest Newman judged it to be “one of the half-dozen best

2262 words

Citation: Scullion, Val. "Ethel Smyth". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 January 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4135, accessed 19 March 2024.]

4135 Ethel Smyth 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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