Ellen Wood, Anne Hereford

Elizabeth Steere (University of North Georgia)

Ed. by Grace Moore, University of Otago
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.07: English Writing and Culture of the Victorian Period, 1837-1901.
Vol. editors: Gillian Fenwick (University of Toronto), Jessica Gossling (Goldsmiths College, University of London)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1869

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

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Ellen Wood’s

Anne Hereford

was the first novel serialised in

The Argosy

after Wood assumed her position as editor, and the work was described as the publication’s “most attractive feature” in its early days (

Gravesend Free Press

, qtd. in “Opinions” 6). It was released in thirteen parts, from December 1867 to December 1868, and republished as a three-volume novel by Tinsley Brothers in 1868. The novel is an exemplar of Wood’s unique combination of sensationalism and the domestic: as one contemporary review observed, “It was a happy thought to combine murder and maidservants, horrors and housekeeping” (

The Saturday Review,

14 Nov 1868, p. 660).

Anne Hereford is also a “governess novel”, a subgenre that Cecilia Wadsö Lecaros describes as a female Bildungsroman, in which

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2043 words

Citation: Steere, Elizabeth. "Anne Hereford". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 12 February 2024 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=6569, accessed 26 April 2024.]

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