Mowatt's Novels

Aug 3, 202335 min read

Anna Cora Mowatt, Mimic Life, and the Critics - Part IV

PART IV: THE PUSHBACK Originally posted September 5, 2022 I know that I’ve been building to the negative reaction to Anna Cora Mowatt’s...

Aug 3, 202320 min read

Anna Cora Mowatt, Mimic Life, and the Critics - Part III

PART III: PUBLICATION Originally posted August 22, 2022 Although January of 1856 is usually listed as the publication date of Mimic Life,...

Aug 3, 202321 min read

Anna Cora Mowatt, Mimic Life, and the Critics - Part II

PART II: THE PUSH Originally published August 8, 2022 [Given the response to my last entry, I am somewhat tempted to take a short...

Aug 3, 202317 min read

Anna Cora Mowatt, Mimic Life, and the Critics - Part I

PART I: THE PREP Originally posted July 25, 2022 Among the reasons why it is a good thing that I am no longer in the classroom is that I...

Aug 2, 202328 min read

Anna Cora Mowatt and Louise Waller – Part IV

PART IV -- IN SICKNESS AND IN WEALTH: MEN, MONEY, AND ILLNESS IN MOWATT'S NARRATIVES [CONTENT WARNING: SUICIDE] Originally posted June...

Aug 2, 202324 min read

Anna Cora Mowatt and Louise Waller – Part III

PART III -- LOVE, SEX, AND HEROES Originally posted June 6, 2022 The truth is the majority of people don’t really care about history. ...

Aug 2, 202321 min read

Anna Cora Mowatt and Louise Waller – Part II

PART II -- MOWATT, MEN, AND VILLANY Originally posted May 23, 2022 If you pick up a book about popular culture in the 19th century in the...

Aug 2, 202321 min read

Anna Cora Mowatt and Louise Waller

PART I: MOWATT'S WOMEN Originally posted May 9, 2022 A Master’s thesis is really a horrid sort of little document. In the Humanities,...

Aug 2, 202320 min read

Anna Cora Mowatt, Eugenie Foa, Lucy Landon, and “Cecil and His Dog”

THREE MISFORTUNES THAT ENDED IN A HAPPY RESULT FOR READERS Originally published April 25, 2022 Although today her works are primarily of...

Aug 1, 202322 min read

Anna Cora Mowatt and What’s in a Name – Part II

PART II: ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE Originally posted March 28, 2022 The Victorian opulence of Anna Cora Ogden Mowatt Ritchie’s name...

Aug 1, 202321 min read

Anna Cora Mowatt and What’s In A Name

PART I: THE TIES THAT BIND Originally published March 14, 2022 Around this time last year, a well-meaning publishing company launched a...

Jul 27, 202315 min read

Anna Cora Mowatt, Pauline, and George Vandenhoff

PART V: THE PARTNERSHIP THAT WASN’T Originally posted June 21, 2021 [This is a continuation of my multi-part series of entries examining...

Jul 27, 202315 min read

Anna Cora Mowatt and The Lady at Niblo’s

PART IV: SUMMER THEATER IN NEW YORK AND EDGAR ALLAN POE Originally posted June 14, 2014 [This entry is a continuation of my multi-part...

Jul 10, 202315 min read

Anna Cora Mowatt, Evelyn, and the Tableaux Vivant

Originally posted Jan. 25, 2021 Victorian tableaux vivant existed in a gauzy liminal safe space halfway between games and theatre. In the...

Jul 7, 202313 min read

Mr. and Mrs. Mowatt

Originally posted Jan. 4, 2021 Dear Reader, pure of heart and mind as doubtlessly you are, I know you do not waste much time pondering...

Jul 2, 202320 min read

Anna Cora Mowatt and the Real People behind the “Fairies”

Originally published June 29, 2020 At the time of this writing, I am working on a recording of an audiobook of Mowatt’s novel Fairy...

Jul 2, 202312 min read

Anna Cora Mowatt and Her Publishers

Originally posted June 20, 2020 I came to the idea of devoting a blog entry to the topic of Anna Cora Mowatt’s publishers after reading...

Jul 2, 20235 min read

Anna Cora Mowatt and The Mute Singer

Originally posted June 18, 2020 At the end of the 1850’s, Anna Cora Mowatt Ritchie experienced a creative renaissance of sorts. I qualify...

Jul 2, 20237 min read

Anna Cora Mowatt and Les Doigts de Fee

Originally published on June 1, 2020 The last ten years of Anna Cora Mowatt’s life is significantly less well documented than the decades...

Jul 2, 20239 min read

Anna Cora Mowatt and the Tragic Fate of Stella

Originally posted April 6, 2020 I have just finished recording an audiobook of “Mimic Life” for Librivox.org and have been reflecting...