Ada Ellen Bayly (25 March 1857 – 8 February 1903), also known as Edna Lyall, was an English

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...

, who "supported the women's suffrage movement from an early age."''XIX Century Fiction, Part II: L–Z'', London: Jarndyce, 2020, Item 34.

Biography

Bayly was born in Brighton, the youngest of four children of a barrister. Early in life she lost both her parents, so that she spent her youth with an uncle in

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

and in a

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

private school. Bayly never married. She seems to have spent her adult life living with her two married sisters and her brother, a clergyman in

Bosbury Bosbury is a village and civil parish in Herefordshire, England, approximately north of Ledbury. The small River Leadon flows through the parish, passing along the west side of the village.Ordnance Survey mapping Bosbury shares a parish cou ...

Herefordshire Herefordshire () is a county in the West Midlands of England, governed by Herefordshire Council. It is bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh counties of Monmouthshire ...

. In 1879, she published her first novel, ''Won by Waiting'', under the pseudonym "Edna Lyall" (apparently derived from transposing letters from Ada Ellen Bayly). The book was not a success. Success came with ''We Two'', based on the life of

Charles Bradlaugh Charles Bradlaugh (; 26 September 1833 – 30 January 1891) was an English political activist and atheist. He founded the National Secular Society in 1866, 15 years after George Holyoake had coined the term "secularism" in 1851. In 1880, Brad ...

, a social reformer and advocate of free thought. Her historical novel ''In the Golden Days'' was the last book read to

John Ruskin John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English writer, philosopher, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and politi ...

on his deathbed; while ''Hope the Hermit'' was a bestseller set in the

Lake District The Lake District, also known as the Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous for its lakes, forests, and mountains (or ''fells''), and its associations with William Wordswor ...

and later an inspiration for

Hugh Walpole Sir Hugh Seymour Walpole, Commander of the Order of the British Empire, CBE (13 March 18841 June 1941) was an English novelist. He was the son of an Anglican clergyman, intended for a career in the church but drawn instead to writing. Among th ...

's ''Rogue Herries''. ''To Right the Wrong'' (2nd ed. 1894) is a historical novel about

John Hampden John Hampden (24 June 1643) was an English landowner and politician whose opposition to arbitrary taxes imposed by Charles I made him a national figure. An ally of Parliamentarian leader John Pym, and cousin to Oliver Cromwell, he was one of th ...

and the

English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...

. Bayly wrote in all eighteen novels, many of them offering interesting explorations of the writer's creative process. Part of her success was due to her practice of using characters from one novel in a different capacity in her next.S. Mitchell, ''Victorian Britain'' (2012) p. 468

Selected works

*''Won by Waiting'', 1879. *''Donovan'', 1882. *''We Two'', sequel of the former, 1884. *''In the Golden Days'', 1885. *''Autobiography of a Slander'', 1887. *''To Right the Wrong'', 3 vols., 1894. *
Doreen: The Story of a Singer
1894 *''The Autobiography of a Truth'', 1896. *''Wayfaring Men: A Novel'', 1896. *''Hope the Hermit'', 1898. *''The Burgess Letters'', 1902.

Citations

References

External links

* * * * *
''Won by Waiting'' (1892) Appleton, New York (Google ebook)

Golden Gale
(all eighteen of her works of fiction)
Jesse Maria Escreet (1904) ''The life of Edna Lyall (Ada Ellen Bayly)'', Longmans, Green, and Co., London (Google ebook)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bayly, Ada Ellen 1857 births 1903 deaths 19th-century English novelists 19th-century English women writers English women novelists People from Brighton English feminists

Biography

Selected works

See also

Citations

References

Further reading

External links