Mary Russell Mitford’s “Our Village” and the Development of the Professional Periodical Writer

Potter, Jonathan (2025) Mary Russell Mitford’s “Our Village” and the Development of the Professional Periodical Writer. Women's Writing, 32 (1). pp. 44-65. ISSN 0969-9082

Preview

Text JPotter Mary Russell Mitford and the development of the professional periodical writer - post review sans tracking.pdf - Accepted Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (385kB)

Abstract

Driven by financial necessity, Mary Russell Mitford was one of the first consistently paid writers working in the periodical press and an early success story with her sketches appearing in multiple periodicals as well as in a range of collected editions throughout the century. This article builds on recent scholarship that places Mary Russell Mitford’s “Our Village” sketches in the context of the evolving print culture of the 1820s, and seeks to understand the characteristics of her long-lasting appeal. It argues that, as a professional writer, Mitford’s long-term success across multiple publication formats hinged on her marketable brand identity as a canonical woman writer alongside Jane Austen, connecting writing, image, and biography, and her influential development of a descriptive prose technique able to generate an illusion of truthful pictures drawn from life.

Item Type:	Article
Identification Number:	10.1080/09699082.2024.2447185
Dates:	Date Event 1 February 2025 Accepted 4 February 2025 Published Online
Subjects:	CAH19 - language and area studies > CAH19-01 - English studies > CAH19-01-02 - English language
Divisions:	Faculty of Arts, Design and Media > College of English and Media
Depositing User:	Gemma Tonks
Date Deposited:	14 Feb 2025 13:52
Last Modified:	14 Feb 2025 13:52
URI:	https://www.open-access.bcu.ac.uk/id/eprint/16168

Actions (login required)

View Item