Skip to content
1981
Volume 7 Number 2
  • ISSN: 2052-3971
  • E-ISSN: 2052-398X

Abstract

In the wake of a ‘crushing sorrow’ at the age of 50, Elizabeth Edmonds (1821–1907) turned to Modern Greece for a solution. After four months’ stay in Athens in 1880, she returned to London a confirmed Philhellene. Her connections in Athens saw her engaging with the emergent Athenian generation of the 1880s; Palamas, Karkavitsas, Drosinis, Xenopoulos and Vizyinos were published in English translation long before they became figures of the Greek establishment. Edmonds’s links to Oscar Wilde and the diplomat Ioannis Gennadios put her in a fine position from which to promote the Greek cause in Britain. It is widely known that the Cretan Insurrection generated a ripple effect that prompted writers to return to events of 1821. My argument is that Edmonds did so with more subtlety than most. By translating Greek poetry and writing detailed articles, as well as publishing her own fiction inspired by the earlier revolution, Edmonds began to drip-feed a Philhellenism more in keeping with her own times to a British audience. The lives of Rhigas Feraios, Theodoros Kolokotronis and Bouboulina all emerged in Edmonds’s writing, along with the warrior figure of the andreiomeni lygeri. This article traces the development of Greek independence in Edmonds’s writing, from early fiction to later translation work. Through a consideration of this material, and Edmonds’s own correspondence, the article explores how the War of Independence served belatedly to give Edmonds a sense of voice and vocation.

© 2021 Intellect Ltd
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/jgmc_00034_1
2021-10-01
2026-04-14

Metrics

Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Anon. ( 1888;), article about Madame Popelin. , The Women’s Penny Paper, 8 December, p. 5.
     [Google Scholar]
  2. Anon. ( 1893;), ‘ Zante Relief Fund. ’, London Standard, 11 March, p. 4.
     [Google Scholar]
  3. Anon. ( 1894;), ‘ Review: Amygdala: A Tale of the Greek Revolution. ’, Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science and Art, 78:2, p. 393.
     [Google Scholar]
  4. Assinder, Semele. ( 2015;), ‘ Edmonds, Elizabeth Mayhew (bap. 1821, d. 1907). ’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford:: Oxford University Press;, http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/107349. Accessed 7 September 2021.
     [Google Scholar]
  5. Bastea, Eleni. ( 2000), The Creation of Modern Athens: Planning the Myth, Cambridge:: Cambridge University Press;.
     [Google Scholar]
  6. Bennett, Alan. ( 2004), The History Boys, London:: Faber;.
     [Google Scholar]
  7. Crawford, Elizabeth. ( 2013;), ‘ Osler [née Taylor], Catherine Courtauld (1854–1924), social reformer and suffragist. ’, in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford:: Oxford University Press;.
     [Google Scholar]
  8. Doughan, David, and Sanchez, Denise. ( 1987), Feminist Periodicals 1855–1984: An Annotated Critical Bibliography of British, Irish, Commonwealth, and International Titles, Brighton:: Harvester Press;.
     [Google Scholar]
  9. Edmonds, Elizabeth Mayhew Waller. ( 1881), Fair Athens, London:: Remington & Co;.
     [Google Scholar]
  10. Edmonds, Elizabeth Mayhew Waller. ( 1883), Hesperas: Rhythm and Rhyme, London:: Kegan Paul, Trench;.
     [Google Scholar]
  11. Edmonds, Elizabeth Mayhew Waller. ( 1885), Greek Lays, Idylls, Legends, &c: A Selection from Recent and Contemporary Poets, London:: Trübner & Co;.
     [Google Scholar]
  12. Edmonds, Elizabeth Mayhew Waller. ( 1888a;), ‘ After fifty. ’, Women’s Penny Paper, 29 December, p. 6.
     [Google Scholar]
  13. Edmonds, Elizabeth Mayhew Waller. ( 1888b), Mary Myles: A Study, London:: Remington & Co;.
     [Google Scholar]
  14. Edmonds, Elizabeth Mayhew Waller. ( 1888c;), ‘ Modern Greek poets. ’, Woman’s World, 1, pp. 315–22.
     [Google Scholar]
  15. Edmonds, Elizabeth Mayhew Waller. ( 1889a;), ‘ Greek women: Their love of freedom. ’, Women’s Penny Paper, 1 June, p. 7.
     [Google Scholar]
  16. Edmonds, Elizabeth Mayhew Waller. ( 1889b;), ‘ Crete. ’, Women’s Penny Paper, 12 October, p. 8.
     [Google Scholar]
  17. Edmonds, Elizabeth Mayhew Waller. ( 1889c;), ‘ A suggestion. ’, Women’s Penny Paper, 9 November, p. 3.
     [Google Scholar]
  18. Edmonds, Elizabeth Mayhew Waller. ( 1890;), ‘ The heroine of Spetzai. ’, Woman’s World, 3, pp. 609–12.
     [Google Scholar]
  19. Edmonds, Elizabeth Mayhew Waller. ( 1891a), Amaryllis, London:: T. Fisher Unwin;.
     [Google Scholar]
  20. Edmonds, Elizabeth Mayhew Waller. ( 1891b;), ‘ A daughter of Crete. ’, Newbery House Magazine, 4:3, pp. 310–19.
     [Google Scholar]
  21. Edmonds, Elizabeth Mayhew Waller. ( 1892a;), ‘ Scenes from Greek life – Chrysanthos. From the Greek of Andreas Karkavitsas. ’, Eastern and Western Review, 2:3, pp. 235–40.
     [Google Scholar]
  22. Edmonds, Elizabeth Mayhew Waller. ( 1892b), Kolokotrones the Klepht and the Warrior: Sixty Years of Peril and Daring. An Autobiography. With a Preface by Monsieur J. Gennadius, London:: Fisher Unwin;; New York: Macmillan .
     [Google Scholar]
  23. Edmonds, Elizabeth Mayhew Waller. ( 1894), Amygdala: A Tale of the Greek Revolution, London:: Bell & Sons;.
     [Google Scholar]
  24. Edmonds, Elizabeth Mayhew Waller. ( 1897), I Mitryia, the Stepmother: A Tale of Modern Athens, London and New York:: J. Lane;.
     [Google Scholar]
  25. Edmonds, E. M.. ( n.d.;), ‘ Letter to Gennadius pasted into “The Stepmother”. ’, call number MGL – X 53/CM 59 E .
  26. Edmonds, E. M.. ( n.d.;), ‘ Letters to George Bell & Sons. ’, University of Reading Special Collection 1640/326/58-59, 1640/221/58-59, 1640/296/106-108, 1640/29752-55 .
  27. Fiske, Shanyn. ( 2008), Heretical Hellenism: Women Writers, Ancient Greece and the Victorian Popular Imagination, Athens, OH:: Ohio University Press;.
     [Google Scholar]
  28. Gotsi, Georgia. ( 2017;), ‘ Letters from E. M. Edmonds to Nikolaos G. Politis. ’, Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, 41:2, pp. 254–77.
     [Google Scholar]
  29. Gray, Elizabeth. ( 2012;), ‘ Poetry and politics in The Women’s Penny Paper/Woman’s Herald, 1888–1893: “One swift, bright fore-gleam of celestial day”. ’, Victorian Periodicals Review, 45:2, pp. 134–57.
     [Google Scholar]
  30. Hart-Davis, Rupert. ( 1962), The Letters of Oscar Wilde, London:: Hart-Davis;.
     [Google Scholar]
  31. Hurst, Isobel. ( 2006), Victorian Women Writers and the Classics: The Feminine of Homer, Oxford:: Oxford University Press;.
     [Google Scholar]
  32. Jenkins, Romilly. ( 1998), The Dilessi Murders, London:: Prior;.
     [Google Scholar]
  33. Mahn, Churnjeet. ( 2012), British Women’s Travel to Greece, 1840–1914: Travels in the Palimpsest, Farnham:: Ashgate;.
     [Google Scholar]
  34. Olverson, T. D.. ( 2010), Women Writers and the Dark Side of Late-Victorian Hellenism, Basingstoke:: Palgrave Macmillan;.
     [Google Scholar]
  35. Osler, Mrs. ( 1888;), ‘ Moral vivisection. ’, The Women’s Penny Paper, 8 December, p. 5.
     [Google Scholar]
  36. Papargyriou, Eleni,, Assinder, Semele, and Holton, David. (eds) ( 2017), Greece in British Women’s Literary Imagination, 1913–2013, New York:: Peter Lang;.
     [Google Scholar]
  37. Poulos, Margaret. ( 2009), Arms and the Woman: Just Warriors and Greek Feminist Identity, New York:: Columbia University Press;.
     [Google Scholar]
  38. Prins, Yopie. ( 2017), Ladies’ Greek, Princeton, NJ:: Princeton University Press;.
     [Google Scholar]
  39. Rhind, Neil. ( 1976), Blackheath Village and Environs 1790–1970, London:: Bookshops Blackheath;.
     [Google Scholar]
  40. Roessel, David. ( 2002), In Byron’s Shadow: Modern Greece in the English and American Imagination, Oxford:: Oxford University Press;.
     [Google Scholar]
  41. Woolf, Virginia. ( 1974;), ‘ Professions for women. ’, in The Death of the Moth, and Other Essays, Boston:: Harcourt;.
     [Google Scholar]
  42. Xenopoulos, Grigorios. ( 1893;), ‘ Synchronoi xenoi syggrafeis: Elisabet M. Edmonds. ’ (‘Contemporary foreign writers: Elizabeth M. Edmonds’) , Estia, 36, pp. 89–90.
     [Google Scholar]
  43. Assinder, Semele. ( 2021;), ‘ A revolution of one’s own: Elizabeth Edmonds translates the Greek War of Independence. ’, Journal of Greek Media & Culture, 7:2, pp. 187–202, 10.1386/jgmc_00034_1
     [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1386/jgmc_00034_1
Loading
  • Article Type: Article
Keyword(s): Edmonds; feminism; Greek War of Independence; New Woman; nineteenth-century Greece; translation

Most Cited Most Cited RSS feed

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error
Please enter a valid_number test