Alethea Lewis (born 19 December 1749, buried 12 November 1827) was an English novelist, born at Acton, near

Nantwich Nantwich ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. It has among the highest concentrations of listed buildings in England, with notably good examples of Tudor and Georgian architecture. ...

, Cheshire. She also used the pseudonym Eugenia de Acton. Her subject-matter centres on her profound Christianity and her belief in the rewards of virtue. Her work displays great erudition.

Life

Alethea's father, James Brereton, was an Anglican cleric. She was two years old when her mother died and her father sent her away to live with her maternal grandfather, who was a linen draper in

Framlingham Framlingham is a market town and civil parish in Suffolk, England. Of Anglo-Saxon origin, it appears in the 1086 Domesday Book. The parish had a population of 3,342 at the 2011 Census and an estimated 4,016 in 2019. Nearby villages include Ea ...

, Suffolk. Her father later remarried and had other daughters. Alethea became engaged to William Springal Levett, son of an

Aldeburgh Aldeburgh ( ) is a coastal town in the county of Suffolk, England. Located to the north of the River Alde. Its estimated population was 2,276 in 2019. It was home to the composer Benjamin Britten and remains the centre of the international Alde ...

physician and a friend of the poet

George Crabbe George Crabbe ( ; 24 December 1754 – 3 February 1832) was an English poet, surgeon and clergyman. He is best known for his early use of the realistic narrative form and his descriptions of middle and working-class life and people. In the 177 ...

, but he died in 1774 before they could marry. In 1788 she married Augustus Towle Lewis, a surgeon with a criminal past of which she may have been unaware. The couple lived in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

for a year, then returned to England and settled finally in

Penkridge Penkridge ( ) is a village and civil parish in South Staffordshire District in Staffordshire, England. It is to the south of Stafford, north of Wolverhampton, west of Cannock and east of Telford. The nearby town of Brewood is also not far awa ...

, Staffordshire, where she died in 1827.

Work

Of the novels attributed to Lewis, some are unquestionably hers, but others more doubtful. The latter include ''Vicissitudes in Genteel Life'' (1794) and ''The Microcosm'' (1801). Some of the more uncertain works (''Things by their Right Names'', 1812, ''Rhoda'', 1816, and ''Isabella'', 1823) have also been attributed to Frances Jacson. Lewis's themes mostly centre on her profound Christianity and the rewards of virtue. Her work is self-conscious and erudite. Some (''Essays on the Art of being Happy'', 1803, ''A Tale without a Title: Give it what you Please'', 1804, ''The Nuns of the Desert, or, The Woodland Witches'', 1805, and the four-volume ''The Discarded Daughter'', 1810) were published under the pseudonym Eugenia de Acton. Her plots have been called "overcrowded and creaky", but with "a strain of creative unconventionality".Orlando site, Cambridge University
Retrieved 27 September 2014.
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lewis, Althea 1749 births 1827 deaths English women novelists 18th-century English writers 18th-century British women writers 19th-century English writers 19th-century English women writers Anglican writers People from Northwich People from Penkridge 18th-century English women 18th-century English people 18th-century pseudonymous writers Pseudonymous women writers