Selina Davenport (27 June 1779 – 14 July 1859) was an English novelist, briefly married to the miscellanist and biographer

Richard Alfred Davenport Richard Alfred Davenport (1777–1852) was an English miscellaneous writer. Life Davenport was born in Lambeth on 18 January 1777, and started work as a writer in London at an early age. In the late 1790s he knew John Britton and Peter Lionel C ...

. Her eleven published novels have been recently described as "effective if stereotyped".''The Feminist Companion to Literature in English. Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present'', Virginia Blain, Patricia Clements and Isobel Grundy, eds (London: Batsford, 1990), p. 267.

Early life

Selina Granville Wheler was born in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, England, on 27 July 1779, to Captain Charles Granville Wheler and his wife. At an early age, Selina met and later befriended sisters

Anna Maria Porter Anna Maria Porter (1778–1832) was a British poet and novelist. Life The sister of Jane Porter and Robert Ker Porter, she was probably born on 17 December 1778 and was baptized in Salisbury on 25 December 1778. She spent her infancy in Dur ...

and

Jane Porter Jane Porter (3 December 1775 – 24 May 1850) was an English historical novelist, dramatist and literary figure. Her bestselling novels, ''Thaddeus of Warsaw'' (1803) and ''The Scottish Chiefs'' (1810) are seen as among the earliest historical ...

, who were both to become successful writers in the early 1800s. Of the two sisters, Selina was closer to Jane, and the two women remained friends until Porter died in 1850.

Marriage and separation

On 6 September 1800, at the age of 21, Selina Wheler married Richard Alfred Davenport (1777–1852), a writer. They had two daughters – Mary, born in 1803 in

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

, and Theodora, born in 1806 in

Putney Putney () is a district of southwest London, England, in the London Borough of Wandsworth, southwest of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. History Putney is an ancient paris ...

– but they separated acrimoniously in or around 1810, for what Selina called "sufficient reasons". However, they never divorced and neither of them remarried. After the separation, Davenport claimed she had been left with next to nothing, while her husband stated that she had left debts of £150 incurred while running a school. She began writing as a means of support for both herself and her two daughters.

Writing

Selina Davenport wrote eleven novels altogether. Most were published by the popular

Minerva Press Minerva Press was a publishing house, noted for creating a lucrative market in sentimental and Gothic fiction in the late 18th century and early 19th century. It was established by William Lane (c. 1745–1814) at No 33 Leadenhall Street, Lon ...

(later A. K. Newman & Company), known especially for sentimental and

Gothic fiction Gothic fiction, sometimes called Gothic horror in the 20th century, is a loose literary aesthetic of fear and haunting. The name is a reference to Gothic architecture of the European Middle Ages, which was characteristic of the settings of ea ...

. At least two were translated into German. ''Sons of the Viscount, and the Daughters of the Earl'' (1813) has a typical plot of family enmity and seduction and involves two sisters who fall in love with two brothers. One pair achieves marital bliss; the other are divided by "giddiness" and eventual death. ''Italian Vengeance and English Forbearance'' (1828) features an avenging woman who shoots her seducer dead in a duel. One literary critic has commented that ''Italian Vengeance'' "use Gothic

trope Trope or tropes may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Trope (cinema), a cinematic convention for conveying a concept * Trope (literature), a figure of speech or common literary device * Trope (music), any of a variety of different things ...

s to sensationalize a domestic novel of manners."

Later life

In addition to writing novels, Davenport supported her family financially with various business ventures that included running a coffee house and a dance school. She also received financial help from Jane Porter and additional support, in the form of a letter to the Royal Literary Fund supporting a request for financial aid, from

Elizabeth Gaskell Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (''née'' Stevenson; 29 September 1810 – 12 November 1865), often referred to as Mrs Gaskell, was an English novelist, biographer and short story writer. Her novels offer a detailed portrait of the lives of many st ...

.''Further Letters of Mrs Gaskell'', ed. John Chapple and Alan Shelston (Manchester, UK:Manchester University Press, 2003, p. 109. Her husband, on the other hand, sought to prevent her from receiving payments from the fund. Davenport abandoned writing in 1834 and thereafter supported her widowed daughters by running a tiny shop in

Knutsford Knutsford () is a market town in the borough of Cheshire East, in Cheshire, England. Knutsford is south-west of Manchester, north-west of Macclesfield and 12.5 miles (20 km) south-east of Warrington. The population at the 2011 Census wa ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

, the town on which Gaskell based her famous novel '' Cranford''. Selina Davenport died on 14 July 1859, aged 80. She was buried at St John the Baptist's Church, Knutsford.

Bibliography

*''The Sons of the Viscount. And the Daughters of the Earl: a Novel; Depicting Recent Scenes in Fashionable Life'' (London: Henry Colburn, 1813)https://womensprinthistoryproject.com/person/627 Davenport, Selina]." The Women's Print History Project, 2019, Person ID 627. Accessed 2022-08-17. *''The Hypocrite: or, The Modern Janus; a Novel'' (London: Minerva Press, 1814) *''Donald Monteith, the Handsomest Man of the Age: a Novel'' (London: Minerva Press, 1815) *''The Original of the Miniature: a Novel'' (London: Minerva Press, 1816) *''Leap Year: or, Woman's Privilege; a Novel'' (London: Minerva Press, 1817) *''An Angel's Form and a Devil's Heart: a Novel'' (London: Minerva Press, 1818) *"The Heiress of Glenalvon. A Tale", ''The Pocket Magazine of Classic and Polite Literature'', Volume 1, p. 11 ff. (1818) *''Preference: a Novel'' (London: A. K. Newman and Co., 1824) *''Italian Vengeance and English Forbearance: a Romance'' (London: A. K. Newman and Co., 1828) *''The Queen's Page: a Romance'' (London: A. K. Newman and Co., 1831) *''The Unchanged: a Novel'' (London: A. K. Newman and Co., 1832) *''Personation: a Novel'' (London: A. K. Newman and Co., 1834)

Etexts

*''The Sons of the Viscount. And the Daughters of the Earl'' (1813): Full text a
HathiTrust
*''The Hypocrite: or, The Modern Janus'' (1814): Full text a
HathiTrust
an
Internet Archive
*''Donald Monteith, the Handsomest Man of the Age'' (1815): Full text a
HathiTrust
*''An Angel's Form and a Devil's Heart'' (1818): Full text a
HathiTrust
*''Preference'' (1824): Full text at Google Books: Vol
III
*''The Queen's Page: a Romance'' (1831): Full text at Google Books: Vol
IIIIII
*''The Unchanged'' (1832): Full text at Google Books: Vol
IIIIII
*''Personation'' (1834): Full text at Google Books: Vol
IIIIII

External links

Corvey Women Writers on the Web Author's Page

Davenport, Selina
" The Women's Print History Project, 2019, Person ID 627. Accessed 2022-08-17.
Selina Davenport
" Online Books.
WorldCat

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Davenport, Selina 1779 births 1859 deaths 19th-century English writers 19th-century English women writers English women novelists 19th-century British novelists People from Knutsford