Mew, Charlotte

Mew, Charlotte

▪ British author
in full  Charlotte Mary Mew 
born Nov. 15, 1869, London, Eng.
died March 24, 1928, London

      English writer who is notable for her short well-crafted, highly original poetry.

      Mew's life was largely unhappy. Two of her brothers died in infancy and another in boyhood, and a brother and sister were committed to mental hospitals at a young age. Mew and her sister Anne vowed to remain childless so as not to transmit what they believed to be a family disorder.

      In the 1890s Mew set about publishing her stories. She adopted many beliefs of the New Woman, traveling unescorted to France, smoking cigarettes, and dressing unfashionably, but she remained sexually repressed. When her father died in 1898, Mew, her sister, and her mother began a slide into genteel poverty. In 1923 several influential admirers, including Thomas Hardy (Hardy, Thomas), secured a government pension for Mew. Her sister Anne was diagnosed with cancer in 1926; Mew nursed her until she died the next year. While hospitalized for minor surgery in 1928, Mew poisoned herself.

      Mew published short stories and essays in several periodicals before publishing the lyric poetry that secured her reputation. Her first book of poems, The Farmer's Bride (1916, expanded 1921; U.S. title, Saturday Market), was praised for its natural, direct language, including Wessex country dialect. The title poem and “Madeleine in Church”—in which a prostitute addresses the Virgin Mary—are noted for their then avant-garde conversational rhythms. The Rambling Sailor (1929), a posthumous collection of 32 previously uncollected poems, brought the number of Mew's published poems to 60.

      Mew had numerous admirers, including Virginia Woolf (Woolf, Virginia), Ezra Pound (Pound, Ezra), Sara Teasdale (Teasdale, Sara), John Masefield (Masefield, John), and Hugh Walpole (Walpole, Sir Hugh). Foremost among them, however, was Hardy. Critics noted that the two writers influenced each other, Hardy admiring Mew's country sensibility and belief in human cruelty and Mew captured by the tragic love of Hardy's Jude the Obscure (1895).

Additional Reading
Penelope Fitzgerald, Charlotte Mew and Her Friends: With a Selection of Her Poems (1988).

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем решить контрольную работу

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Mew, Charlotte Mary — (1869 1928)    Born in London, the daughter of a prosperous architect, she was educated privately and later attended lectures at University College, London. Her poems often express the sorrow of her life, where several of her siblings died young… …   British and Irish poets

  • Charlotte Mew — Charlotte Mary Mew (Bloomsbury, 15 de noviembre de 1869 – 24 de marzo de 1928) fue una poetisa y cuentista inglesa, cuya obra se encuentra a caballo entre la poesía victoriana y el Modernismo. Contenido 1 Vida 2 Referencias …   Wikipedia Español

  • Charlotte Mew — Charlotte Mary Mew (15 November 1869 – 24 March 1928) was an English poet, whose work spans the cusp between Victorian poetry and Modernism. She was born in Bloomsbury, London the daughter of the architect Frederick Mew, who designed Hampstead… …   Wikipedia

  • Charlotte Mew — Charlotte Mary Mew (15 novembre 1869 – 24 mars 1928) est une poétesse anglaise de l époque victorienne. Son œuvre est peu importante par la quantité, et elle a très peu publié. Cependant, des poètes comme Siegfried Sassoon ou Ezra Pound la… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Charlotte Mew — Charlotte Mary Mew (* 15. November 1869 in London; † 24. März 1928 ebenda) war eine englische Dichterin. Inhaltsverzeichnis 1 Leben und Schaffen 2 Werke (Auswahl) 3 Literatur …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Mew — Mew(s) may refer to: Contents 1 Sounds 2 Animal lodgings 3 People 4 …   Wikipedia

  • Mew — Cette page d’homonymie répertorie les différents sujets et articles partageant un même nom. Selon le contexte, Mew peut désigner : Mew, un groupe de musique danois ; Mew, un Pokémon ; MEW, le nom de scène d une actrice japonaise de …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Magical Meow Meow Taruto — 魔法少女猫たると (Mahō Shōjo Neko Taruto) Genre Comedy, Magical girl Manga Written by Kaishaku …   Wikipedia

  • Fitzgerald, Penelope — ▪ British author née  Penelope Knox  born Dec. 17, 1916, Lincoln, Eng. died April 28, 2000, London       English novelist and biographer noted for her deft characterizations and for her ability to note the telling detail. Although most of her… …   Universalium

  • The Oxford Book of Twentieth Century English Verse —   …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”