Louisa Stanhope

Louisa Sidney Stanhope (fl. 1806–1827) was an English novelist of the early 19th century. She wrote mainly historical and Gothic romances, in great profusion, counting as the tenth most productive novelist in Britain in the period 1800 to 1829.^[1] Her didactic novels were aimed mainly at younger female readers.

Delicacy and strength

A scholar notes of The Age We Live In (1809) and Runnemede (1825) (and by implication of the others) that they are didactic novels aimed at younger female readers, for it was, in Stanhope's words, "requisite to pamper the insatiate palate of romance-readers; else would the page be cast aside, and the poor author stigmatized with dullness and insipidity." Her characters maintain a balance of feminine delicacy and strength of mind.^[2]

Nothing appears to be known of the author personally. There is no evidence other than dates for identifying her with Louisa Grenville (died 1829), the second wife of Charles Stanhope, 3rd Earl Stanhope,^[3] from whom she separated in 1806, receiving a payment from him of £1500 a year.^[4]

Novels

• Montbrasil Abbey: or, Maternal Trials (1806)
• The Bandit's Bride: or, The Maid of Saxony (1807)
  • French translation: L'Épouse du bandit, ou La Fille de Saxe (1810)
  • reprint: Rosaline; or, the outlaw's bride (1842)^[5]
• Striking Likenesses; or, The Votaries of Fashion (1808)
• The Age We Live In. A Novel (1809)
• Di Montranzo; or, The Novice of Corpus Domini. A Romance (1810)
• The Confessional of Valombre. A Romance (1812)
• Madelina. A Tale Founded on Facts (1814)
• Treachery; or, The Grave of Antoinette. A Romance Interspersed with Poetry (1815)
• The Nun of Santa Maria Di Tindaro (1818)
• The Crusaders. An Historical Romance, of the Twelfth Century (1820)
• The Festival of Mora. An Historical Romance (1821)
• The Siege of Kenilworth. An Historical Romance (1824)
• Runnemede. An Ancient Legend (1825)
• The Seer of Tiviotdale. A Romance (1827)^[6]
• Sydney Beresford. A Tale of the Day (British Library copy dated 1835)

References

1. The Cambridge Companion to Fiction in the Romantic Period, ed. Richard Maxwell, Katie Trumpener, 2008, p. 17.
2. Dawn Davis: "An Essay on the Work of Louisa Sidney Stanhope." Retrieved 7 November 2012.
3. The Peerage. Retrieved 7 November 2012.
4. Michael Kassler: The Music Trade in Georgian England (Farnham, UK: Ashgate Publishing, 2011), p. 396n.
5. Marie Léger-St-Jean: Price One Penny: A Database of Cheap Literature, 1837-1860. Retrieved 10 April 2013.
6. British Fiction, Cardiff. Retrieved 7 November 2012.