Geraldine Jewsbury

Geraldine Endsor Jewsbury (22 August 1812 – 23 September 1880) was an English novelist, book reviewer and prominent figure in London literary life. She is best known for popular novels such as Zoe: the History of Two Lives and for her reviews for the Athenaeum, a literary magazine. Jewsbury never married, but enjoyed many intimate friendships, notably with Jane Carlyle, wife of the essayist Thomas Carlyle. Jewsbury's romantic feelings for her and the complexity of their relationship are reflected in Jewsbury's writings. She also took it on herself to encourage other women to reach their full potential.

Jewsbury was born at Measham, Derbyshire (now Leicestershire), the daughter of Thomas Jewsbury (died 1840), a cotton manufacturer and merchant, and his wife Maria, née Smith, (died 1819). Her paternal grandfather, Thomas Jewsbury Sr. (died 1799), was a surveyor of roads, an engineer of canals, and a philosophy student. In his will he left the family four cottages, a warehouse, some land in Measham and a large cash bequest.

Thomas Jr. and Maria had six children: Maria Jane (1800), Thomas (1802), Henry (1803), Geraldine (1812), Arthur (1815) and Frank (1819). Maria Jane had literary interests and wrote for the Manchester Gazette. After their mother’s early death, she helped to bring up the family till she married, but herself died young of cholera. Geraldine then took care of her father till he died, and also of Frank until he married.

Her father's cotton business suffered from the War of 1812, and he became an insurance agent based in Manchester. Geraldine was educated at a boarding school kept by the Misses Darbys at Alder Mills near Tamworth, and continued her studies in French, Italian, and drawing in London in 1830–31, before returning to her family home. Soon, however, she was suffering depression, questioning her fate and expressing religious doubt. This clearly inspired her first novel, Zoe: the History of Two Lives.

About 1840, Jewsbury wrote to the eminent Scottish author Thomas Carlyle for advice about a literary career. Invited to his home in Chelsea, London, she immediately began a warm friendship with his wife Jane that would become the deepest relationship of her life.

In the early stages, it was highly passionate, as surviving letters reveal, although it is generally thought to have remained platonic. It weathered many disagreements, especially over the role of women, since Jane was a famously dutiful wife, who never considered a career of her own. Jane also displayed jealousy over Jewsbury’s other relationships with men and women, some of them carnal. But the friendship lasted over 25 years, and Jewsbury nursed Jane through periods of illness. Their relationship was recognised by literary scholars, including Virginia Woolf in her article on Jewsbury’s letters to Jane. It also led to Jewsbury’s appearance in print, when Jane helped edit Jewsbury's first two books.

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