Ellen Price (17 January 1814 – 10 February 1887) was an English novelist better known as Mrs. Henry Wood. She is best remembered for her 1861 novel ''
East Lynne
''East Lynne'' is an English sensation novel of 1861 by Ellen Wood, writing as Mrs Henry Wood. A Victorian best-seller, it is remembered chiefly for its elaborate and implausible plot, centring on infidelity and double identities. There have ...
''. Many of her books sold well internationally and were widely read in the United States. In her time, she surpassed
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...
in fame in Australia.
Life
Ellen Price was born in
Worcester
Worcester may refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England
** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament
* Worcester Park, London, Englan ...
in 1814. In 1836 she married Henry Wood, who worked in the banking and shipping trade in
Dauphiné
The Dauphiné (, ) is a former province in Southeastern France, whose area roughly corresponded to that of the present departments of Isère, Drôme and Hautes-Alpes. The Dauphiné was originally the Dauphiné of Viennois.
In the 12th centu ...
in the South of France, where they lived for 20 years.
On the failure of Wood's business, the family (including four children) returned to England and settled in
Upper Norwood
Upper Norwood is an area of south London, England, within the London Boroughs of Bromley, Croydon, Lambeth and Southwark. It is north of Croydon and the eastern part of it is better known as the Crystal Palace area.
Upper Norwood is situated ...
near London, where Ellen Wood turned to writing. This supported the family. Henry Wood died in 1866. She wrote over 30 novels, many of which (especially ''East Lynne'') enjoyed remarkable popularity. Among the best known are ''Danesbury House'', ''Oswald Cray'', ''Mrs. Halliburton's Troubles'', ''
The Channings
''The Channings'' is a 1920 British silent crime film directed by Edwin J. Collins and starring Lionelle Howard, Dick Webb and Dorothy Moody. It was based on the 1862 novel '' The Channings'' by Ellen Wood.
Cast
* Lionelle Howard ... Art ...
'', ''Lord Oakburn's Daughters'' and ''The Shadow of Ashlydyat''. Her writing tone would be described as "conservative and Christian," occasionally expressing religious rhetoric.
In 1867, Wood purchased the English magazine
''Argosy'', which had been founded by Alexander Strahan in 1865. She wrote much of the magazine herself, but other contributors included
Hesba Stretton
Hesba Stretton was the pseudonym of Sarah Smith (27 July 1832 – 8 October 1911), an evangelical English author of religious books for children. These were highly popular. By the late 19th century ''Jessica's First Prayer'' had sold a million a ...
,
Julia Kavanagh
Julia Kavanagh (7 January 1824 – 28 October 1877) was an Irish novelist, born at Thurles in Tipperary, Ireland—then part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Her numerous contributions to literature have classified her as one ...
,
Christina Rossetti
Christina Georgina Rossetti (5 December 1830 – 29 December 1894) was an English writer of romantic, devotional and children's poems, including "Goblin Market" and "Remember". She also wrote the words of two Christmas carols well known in Brit ...
,
Sarah Doudney
Sarah Doudney (15 January 1841, Portsea, Portsmouth, Hampshire – 8 December 1926, Oxford)Charlotte Mitchell"Doudney, Sarah (1841–1926)" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004; online edition, May 2005, ret ...
and
Rosa Nouchette Carey
Rosa Nouchette Carey (27 September 1840 – 9 July 1909) was an English children's writer and popular novelist, whose works reflected the values of her time and were thought of as wholesome for girls. However, they are "not entirely bereft of gr ...
. Wood continued as its editor until her death in 1887, when her son Charles Wood took over.
[; ODNB entry]
oxforddnb.com
Retrieved 31 May 2011.
Wood's works were translated into many languages, including French and Russian.
Leo Tolstoy
Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-refor ...
, in a 9 March 1872 letter to his older brother Sergei, noted that he was "reading Mrs. Wood's wonderful novel ''In the Maze''".
Wood wrote several works of supernatural fiction, including "The Ghost" (1867) and the oft-anthologized "Reality or Delusion?" (1868).
At her death caused by
bronchitis
Bronchitis is inflammation of the bronchi (large and medium-sized airways) in the lungs that causes coughing. Bronchitis usually begins as an infection in the nose, ears, throat, or sinuses. The infection then makes its way down to the bronchi. ...
,
Wood's estate was valued at over £36,000, which was then a considerable sum. She was buried in
Highgate Cemetery
Highgate Cemetery is a place of burial in north London, England. There are approximately 170,000 people buried in around 53,000 graves across the West and East Cemeteries. Highgate Cemetery is notable both for some of the people buried there as ...
, London. A monument to her was unveiled in
Worcester Cathedral
Worcester Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in Worcester, in Worcestershire
Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified ...
in 1916.
Works
These are the first published UK editions as catalogued by the British Library, with supplementary information from a specialist booksellers' catalogue.
[''Women Writers R–Z'' (London: Jarndyce, 2012)]
References
Further reading
*Jennifer Phegley (2005), "Domesticating the Sensation Novelist: Ellen Price Wood as Author and Editor of the 'Argosy Magazine'," ''Victorian Periodicals Review'', Vol. XXXVIII, No. 2, pp. 180–198
*Thomas Seecombe (1900)
"Wood, Ellen (1814–1887),"''Dictionary of National Biography: Williamson-Worden'', Vol. LXII, pp. 355–357
*
Adeline Sergeant
Adeline Sergeant (4 July 1851 – 4 December 1904) was an English writer.
Life
Born Emily Frances Adeline Sergeant at Ashbourne, Derbyshire, the second daughter of Richard Sergeant and Jane (Hall), she was home schooled until the age of thirtee ...
(1897)
"Mrs. Henry Wood" In: ''Women Novelists of Queen Victoria's Reign'', London: Hurst & Blackett, pp. 174–192
*Charles W. Wood (1887)
"Mrs. Henry Wood. In Memorian,"''The Argosy'', Vol. XLIII, pp. 251, 334 and 442
External links
*
*
*
Works by Mrs. Henry Woodat
Hathi Trust
HathiTrust Digital Library is a large-scale collaborative repository of digital content from research libraries including content digitized via Google Books and the Internet Archive digitization initiatives, as well as content digitized locally ...
*
*
Mrs. Henry Wood website*
''Mrs Henry Wood Bibliography Of Contributions To Periodicals''*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wood, Ellen
1887 deaths
1814 births
Victorian novelists
Victorian women writers
19th-century British novelists
Writers from Worcester, England
English Christians
English women novelists
English horror writers
Ghost story writers
Burials at Highgate Cemetery
Deaths from bronchitis
Women horror writers
19th-century English women writers
British magazine editors
Women magazine editors