Matilda Betham-Edwards, 1836-1919
Miss Betham-Edwards hyphenated her name to include her mother’s maiden name. In her sixty-two years as an active writer, she wrote dozens of novels, children’s books, and books about France. After her father’s death in 1864, she moved to London and became a prominent member of the London literary world; her friends included George Eliot, Coventry Patmore, and Sarah Grand.
Bentham-Edwards visited France for the first tiem in 1875. Over the next forty years, She published multiple works on the political sympathies, econ-omic conditions, and regional characteristics of nearly every part of France.
Before her death she was granted the honor of a civil list pension by the British government. But the crowning achievement of Betham-Edwards’s life came in 1891, when France awarded her the title of Officier de l’Instruction Publique de France.
Works by Matilda Betham-Edwards
The White House by the Sea 1857
Holidays Among the Mountains (or Scenes and Stories of Wales) 1860
Little Bird Red and Little Bird Blue (verse drama) 1861
John and I 1862
Dr. Jacob 1864
A Winter with the Swallows 1867
Through Spain to the Sahara 1868
Kitty 1869
The Sylvestres 1871
Felicia 1875
Bridget 1877
Brother Gabriel 1878
Six Life Stories of Famous Women 1880
Forestalled 1880
Pearla 1883
Half-Way 1886
Next of Kin Wanted 1887
The Parting of the Ways 1888
For One and the World 1889
A Romance of the Wire 1891
Edition of Arthur Young’s Travels in France 1892
Romance of a French Parsonage 1892
France of To-Day 1892
The Curb of Honour 1893
A Romance of Dijon 1894
The Golden Bee and other Recitations 1895
Autobiography of Arthur Young 1898
The Lord of the Harvest 1899
Anglo-French Reminiscences 1900
A Suffolk Courtship 1900
Mock Beggars’ Hall 1902
Barham Brocklebank 1903
A Humble Lover 1903
Home Life in France 1905
Martha Rose 1906
Poems 1907
A Close Ring 1907
Literary Rambles in France 1907
Friendly Faces of Three Nationalities 1911
In French Africa 1912
From an Islington Window 1914
Hearts of Alsace 1916
Twentieth Century France 1917
French Fireside Poetry 1919
Mid-Victorian Memories 1919
