Hannah More

Hannah More (1745-1833), the daughter of an obscure schoolmaster, began her working life as a teacher at her sisters' school in Bristol. In her thirtieth year she came to London to persuade the actor-manager David Garrick to put on one of her plays. Her subsequent career as playwright, bluestocking, Evangelical reformer, political writer, and novelist turned her into one of the most influential women of her day. Few of either sex could rival the range of her achievements. This book is the first substantial biography of More for fifty years and the first to make extensive use of her unpublished correspondence. The new material shows her to have been a more lively and attractive character than previous stereotypes have suggested. It also reinforces the growing perception that she was a complex and contradictory figure: a conservative who was accused of political and religious subversion, an ostensible antifeminist who opened up new opportunities for female activism. Recent work on the Georgian period indicates that, in spite of their exclusion from formal power, women played a vital role in the ordering of politics and society. The remarkable career of Hannah More adds weight to the argument that women (notwithstanding the repressive rhetoric of the conduct books) were increasingly active outside the allegedly private sphere of the home. More's long life began just before the last Jacobite rising, and ended at the dawn of the railway age. This book argues that she should be viewed as essentially forward-looking. When one of her early biographers dedicated his book to the young Queen Victoria, it was a fitting tribute to More's significance. In her energetic campaigning, her moral fervour, her belief in Britain's providential destiny, Hannah More anticipated many of the characteristics of Victorianism. She was one of the creators of the new age.

Table of Contents:
Bristol Beginnings; The Garrick Years; Living Muse; Zion's City; The Mendip Schools; Revolution and Counter-Revolution; The Greeks and the Barbarians; The Cheap Repository Tracts; The Emergence of Clapham; Praise and Opposition; The Blagdon Controversy; The Princess and the Bachelor; High Priestess; "Loyal and anti-radical female".

Review :
Anne Stott's absorbing new biography of Hannah More painstakingly reconstructs the precise contexts of More's activities so as to deliver a modified and exacting portrait of this complex figure. English Historical Review; Stott's accessible style and evident feeling for her subject will ensure that this book will reach a wide audience ... this is an important, impressive and hugely enjoyable work that is set to become a standard point of reference. English Historical Review; ... a portrait of More that is subtle, complex, convincing and solidly grounded in extensive research ... This biography not only does a magnificent job of illuminating its subject, it also offers a fascinating picture of late-eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century British society and politics as seen through the lens of one extraordinary woman's activities. BARS Bulletin & Review; ... timely new biography ... thoroughly researched and well-written. Claire Harman, Times Literary Supplement; ... first-rate ... well attuned to the nuances of [its] fascinating subject. Times Higher Education Supplement; ... excellent ... the first modern biography of More and the first to make full use of her extensive correspondence. Times Higher Education Supplement; This excellent biography is a study in sexual politics as much as literary history. Peter Ackroyd, The Times; In her lifetime she was arguably the most eminent and most influential of all female writers. Peter Ackroyd, The Times; Do we need another biography of a long-forgotten woman of moderate talents? The answer is an emphatic yes, and Anne Stott's engaging and highly readable book, Hannah More: The First Victorian, aptly demonstrates the reason why. Juliet Barker, Literary Review; Stott deploys her evidence with a combination of sympathy, tact and honesty that makes for good, fresh biography, and , in the longer term, standard for reference material. Church Times; Anne Stott's achievement is to turn the Mary Whitehouse of the 19th century into a figure of page-turning curiosity and appeal. Sunday Telegraph (Review); ... engaging and highly readable book. Literary Review; Stott performs an absolutely necessary task with admirable restraint. Kathryn Hughes, Sunday Times; Stott is an impeccable researcher. Her accessible but scholarly...biography throws new light on the development of Victorianism by examining its roots. Susan Elkin, The Independent; This biography - the first in half a century - offers a realistic portrait of this energetic, unstoppable woman which acknowledges her unique strengths without idealising her. Lucasta Miller, The Guardian