Adeline Sergeant (4 July 1851 – 4 December 1904) was a prolific English writer of the
Victorian era
In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the reign of Queen Victoria, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. Slightly different definitions are sometimes used. The era followed the ...
. She wrote over ninety novels during her lifetime, including ''Jacobi's Wife.''
Early life and education
Born Emily Frances Adeline Sergeant at
Ashbourne, Derbyshire
Ashbourne is a market town in the Derbyshire Dales district in Derbyshire, England. Its population was measured at 8,377 in the 2011 census and was estimated to have grown to 9,163 by 2019. It has many historical buildings and independent sho ...
, the second daughter of Richard Sergeant and Jane (Hall),
Adeline Sergeant was home schooled until the age of thirteen, when she began attending school in
Weston-super-Mare
Weston-super-Mare ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the North Somerset unitary district, in the county of Somerset, England. It lies by the Bristol Channel south-west of Bristol between Worlebury Hill and Bleadon Hill. Its population ...
. Her mother was a writer of
children's literature
Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. In addition to conventional literary genres, modern children's literature is classified by the intended age of the reade ...
that she published under the pen names 'Adeline' or 'Adeline Hall.' Apart from her first book, which appeared under her initials, Sergeant's signed work all seems to have appeared under her preferred form of name, Adeline Sergeant.
At fifteen a collection of Sergeant's ''Poems'', with a short introduction by her mother, were published in a volume that received positive notice in Wesleyan periodicals. She won a scholarship to attend
Queen's College, London
Queen's College is a Private schools in the United Kingdom, private day school for girls aged 11–18 with an adjoining prep school for girls aged 4–11 located in the City of Westminster, London. It was founded in 1848 by theologian and social ...
. Her father died in 1870, and for several years she worked as a governess at
Riverhead, Kent.
Literary career
One of Sergeant's first major published works for an adult audience appears to be a translation of the novel ''The Chase; a tale of the Southern States'', from the French of
Jules Lermina (London: J.C. Nimmo & Bain, 1880). In 1882 her novel ''Jacobi's Wife'' earned an award of £100,
and the work was published
serially by ''
The People's Friend
''The People's Friend'' is a British weekly magazine founded by John Leng on 13 January 1869 as an offshoot of '' The People's Journal'' and currently published by D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd. Its tagline is "The famous story magazine". It was ...
'' (Dundee).
It appeared in other newspapers as well, and on the conclusion of the serialisation in London in 1887 as a three volume novel. For the next several years her writings were serialized in this Dundee publication, where she lived from 1885 to 1887.
In 1888 Sergeant sold ''A Dead Man's Trust'' to W. C. Leng and Co., which ran a newspaper syndication service based in
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...
. The story appeared in several British and Australian newspapers, but does not appear to have been published separately as a book under this title. Sometime later, Tillotson's Fiction Bureau, a rival operation based in
Bolton
Bolton ( , locally ) is a town in Greater Manchester in England. In the foothills of the West Pennine Moors, Bolton is between Manchester, Blackburn, Wigan, Bury, Greater Manchester, Bury and Salford. It is surrounded by several towns and vill ...
, Lancashire, offered Sergeant a five-year contract to produce a full-length serial and a short story totalling around 160,000 words annually, for which she was paid £162 per annum. Around this time, Sergeant moved to
Bloomsbury
Bloomsbury is a district in the West End of London, part of the London Borough of Camden in England. It is considered a fashionable residential area, and is the location of numerous cultural institution, cultural, intellectual, and educational ...
,
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
, where she earned enough to support herself through her writings.
In the late 1880s, Sergeant developed an interest in
Fabianism and the plight of the poor in London.
Over her literary career, she produced over ninety novels; with some involving a religious theme. Her religious views evolved over time, including a period in the 1880s when she was briefly
agnostic
Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, the divine, or the supernatural is either unknowable in principle or unknown in fact. (page 56 in 1967 edition) It can also mean an apathy towards such religious belief and refer to ...
.
Finally, she converted to
Catholicism
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
at the end of the century. Adeline Sergeant served as literary adviser to the publishing company
R. Bentley & Sons.
She frequently travelled abroad, making trips to
Egypt
Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
and
Palestine
Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...
. In 1901 she moved to
Bournemouth
Bournemouth ( ) is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole unitary authority area, in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. At the 2021 census, the built-up area had a population of 196,455, making it the largest ...
, where she died in 1904.
A biography of Adeline Sergeant appeared the following year.
Bibliography
* ''Poems''
(1866)
* ''Dicky and His Friends''(1879)
* ''Una's Crusade, and other tales''
(1880)
* ''My Nelly's Story, and Halliday's Lads''
(1881)
* ''Beyond Recall''
(1882)
* ''Jacobi's Wife''
(1882)
* ''An Open Foe. A romance''
(1884)
* ''No Saint''
(1886)
* ''Roy's Repentance''
(1888)
* ''Seventy Times Seven''
(1888)
* ''Deveril's Diamond''
(1889)
* ''A Life Sentence''
(1889)
* ''The Luck of the House'' (1889)
* ''Esther Denison''
(1889)
* ''Name and Fame''
(1890)
[''The Lists of the Publications of Richard Bentley & Son, 1829–1898'', folio 2190, indicates this book was co-written with her cousin Lewis Sergeant (1841–1902), who used the ''nom-de-guerre'' or pseudonym 'A. S. Ewing-Lester' on the book's title page.]
* ''A True Friend''
(1890)
* ''Little Miss Colwyn''
(1890)
* ''Brooke's daughter''
(1891)
* ''Sir Anthony''
(1892)
* ''Christine''
(1892)
* ''The Story of a Penitent Soul''
(1892)
* ''Under False Pretences''
(1892)
* ''An East London Mystery''
(1892)
* ''A Broken Idol''
(1893)
* ''In Vallombrosa''
(1894)
* ''The Surrender of Margaret Bellarmine. A fragment'' (1894)
* ''St. Maur''
(1894)
* ''Christine''
(1894)
* ''Dr. Endicott's Experiment''
(1894)
* ''The Mistress of Quest''
(1895)
* ''Out of Due Season : a mezzotint''
(1895)
* ''Marjory's Mistake''
(1895)
* ''Kitty Holden''
(1895)
* ''No Ambition''
(1895)
* ''A Deadly Foe''
(1895)
* ''Erica's Husband''
(1896)
* ''The Failure of Sibyl Fletcher''
(1896)
* ''Roger Vanbrugh's Wife''
(1896)
* ''Told in the Twilight''
(1896)
* ''A Rogue's Daughter''
(1896)
* ''In the Wilderness''
(1896)
* ''In Vallombrosa''
(1897)
* ''The Claim of Anthony Lockhart''
(1897)
* ''The Idol-Maker''
(1897)
* ''The Lady Charlotte''
(1897)
* ''Marjory Moore's Lovers''
(1897)
* ''A Valuable Life''
(1898)
* ''Miss Betty's Mistake''
(1898)
* ''Margaret Wynne''
(1898)
* ''The Story of Phil Enderby''
(1898)
* ''Blake of Oriel''
(1899)
* ''The Love Story of Margaret Wynne''
(1899)
* ''The Common Lot''
(1899)
* ''The Conscience of Gilbert Pollard''
(1900)
* ''A Rise in the World''
(1900)
* ''Miss Cleveland's Companion''
(1901)
* ''A Great Lady''
(1901)
* ''My Lady's Diamonds''
(1901)
* ''Sylvia's Ambition''
(1901)
* ''This Body of Death''
(1901)
* ''Daunay's tower''
(1901)
* ''The Treasure of Captain Scarlett''
(1901)
* ''The Marriage of Lydia Mainwaring''
(1902)
* ''A Soul Apart''
(1902)
* ''Barbara's Money''
(1902)
* ''The Master of Beechwood''
(1902)
* ''The Mission of Margaret, and other stories''
(1902)
* ''Anthea's way''
(1903)
* ''Beneath the Veil''
(1903)
* ''Alison's Ordeal. A story for girls''
(1903)
* ''Cynthia's Ideal''
(1903)
* ''The Love that Overcame''
(1903)
* ''The Progress of Rachel''
(1904)
* ''The Yellow Diamond''
(1904)
* ''Accused and Accuser''
(1904)
* ''Dicky and His Friends''
(1904)
* ''Nellie Maturin's Victory''
(1905), posthumous
* ''The Sixth Sense''
(1905), posthumous
* ''The Missing Elizabeth''
(1905), posthumous
* ''An Independent Maiden''
(1906), posthumous
* ''An Impetuous Girl''
(1906), posthumous
* ''The Quest of Geoffrey Darrell''
(1907), posthumous
* ''The House in the Crescent''
(1907), posthumous
* ''The Passion of Paul Marillier''
(1908), posthumous
* ''May's Cousin''
(1909), posthumous
* ''My Lady's Diamonds''
(1913), posthumous
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sergeant, Adeline
1851 births
1904 deaths
19th-century English novelists
People from Ashbourne, Derbyshire
English women novelists
20th-century English novelists
20th-century English women writers
19th-century English women writers
Victorian novelists
Victorian women writers
19th-century English short story writers
English women short story writers
Victorian short story writers
Writers from Derbyshire
20th-century English short story writers