George Egerton
George Egerton, born Mary Chavelita Dunne in 1859 in Melbourne, Australia, emerged as a notable literary figure in the late 19th century. She faced a tumultuous childhood marked by poverty and instability, which shaped her perspective and writing. Dunne's literary career began with the publication of her first work, *Keynotes*, in 1893, under the pseudonym George Egerton. This collection of stories, adorned with a cover by Aubrey Beardsley, was both celebrated and criticized for its exploration of women's emotional lives and sexual experiences, resonating with the ideals of the "New Woman" movement of the time.
Her writing style and themes reflected the influence of prominent literary figures and movements, showcasing intense emotional content and psychological depth. Egerton's most well-known novel, *The Wheel of God* (1898), drew comparisons to Charlotte Brontë’s *Jane Eyre* and highlighted the struggles of young Irish working women in New York City. Despite her once-celebrated status and connections to notable contemporaries like W.B. Yeats and George Bernard Shaw, Egerton's work is less recognized today, primarily studied by scholars of literary history. Overall, her contributions to literature anticipated the modernist explorations of emotions and identity that would later be prominent in the works of writers like James Joyce, D.H. Lawrence, and Virginia Woolf.
George Egerton
"New Women" novelist, short fiction writer, and translator.
- Born: December 14, 1859
- Birthplace: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- Died: July 1, 1945
- Place of death: Crawley, Sussex, England
Biography
Mary Chavelita Dunne was born in 1859 in Melbourne, Australia, to Irishman John Joseph Dunne. Her mother’s maiden name was George, and she was of Welsh descent. Her father suffered erratic employment; as a result, Dunne suffered a chaotic impoverished childhood that included living with a variety of relatives. In time, she was left to cope alone with her younger siblings. In 1875, Dunne attended boarding school in Germany though the generosity of a relative.
In time, she became a traveling companion to a Mrs. Higginson, who was ultimately deserted by her husband in 1887 when he took Dunne to Norway. The two lived there until Mr. Higginson’s death in 1889. While in Norway, Dunne learned Norwegian and read such Scandinavian writers as Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg. In 1891, she married George Clairmonte, a native of Newfoundland, who had recently returned from Africa. The couple had one son.
Like Dunne’s father, Clairmonte couldn’t earn a living and left it up to Dunne to earn money writing stories. In 1901, she married drama critic, Reginald Golding Bright, fifteen years her junior. Dunne’s first work, Keynotes (1893), was published under the name of George Egerton. Its distinctive cover was created by Aubrey Beardsley, and the work received high degrees of both praise and condemnation.
Echoing Victorian scholar Walter Pater’s ideas that art should capture moments of beauty, the book, and her next works, Discords (1894), and Symphonies (1897), demonstrate the characteristic narrative practices of the period and the Decadents. These features which include intense emotional content and vivid sexual experiences of women characters, appealed greatly to supporters of the "New Woman" and the woman-suffrage movements. Keynotes depicted intense psychological portraits of emotional women who rebel against their Victorian upbringing, their lack of education and economic opportunities. Her most successful novel, The Wheel of God (1898), which was written in the style of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (1847), details the life of young Irish working women in late nineteenth century New York.
Although Egerton’s fiction is little known today, appealing mainly to scholars of the history of the short story, in her day Egerton became a celebrated literary figure almost overnight, corresponding with such luminary lights as Havelock Ellis, William Butler Yeats and George Bernard Shaw. She was highly regarded for her representations of the inner emotions of characters and anticipated such major modernist writers as James Joyce, D. H. Lawrence, and Virginia Woolf.
Author Works
Long Fiction (as George Egerton):
The Wheel of God, 1898
Rosa Amorosa: The Love Letters of a Woman, 1901
Nonfiction (correspondence):
A Leaf from the Yellow Book: The Correspondence of George Egerton), 1958
Short Fiction (as George Egerton):
Keynotes, 1893
Discords, 1894
Symphonies, 1897
Fantasias, 1898
Flies in Amber, 1905
Translation(s) (as George Egerton):
Young Olaf's Ditties, 1895 (Olaf Hansson, author)
Hunger, 1920 (Knut Hamsun, author)
Bibliography
Fluhr, Nicole M. "Figuring the New Woman: Writers and Mothers in George Egerton's Early Stories." Texas Studies in Literature & Language, vol. 43, no. 3, 2001, p. 243. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=5048995&site=eds-live. Discusses Egerton's representations of women in her short stories, including the cultural separation between the roles of mothering and writing.
Henderson, Kate Krueger. "Mobility and Modern Consciousness in George Egerton's and Charlotte Mew's "Yellow Book" Stories." English Literature in Transition, 1880–1920, vol. 54, no. 2, Apr. 2011, pp. 185–211. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=55527052&site=eds-live. Accessed 21 June 2017. Analyzes Egerton's contributions to the "Yellow Book" literary periodical, including the story "A Lost Masterpiece," focusing on issues of gender, urban mobility, and the consciousness of the New Woman movement.
O'Toole, Tina. "George Egerton's Translocational Subjects." Modernism/Modernity, vol. 21, no. 3, Sept. 2014, pp. 827–42. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=vth&AN=98684812&site=eds-live. Accessed 21 June 2017. Focuses on the story "The Chessboard of Guendolen" (1905) and its depiction of Irish migrants.
Patterson, Anthony. "Making Mrs Grundy's Flesh Creep: George Egerton's Assault on Late-Victorian Censorship." Victoriographies: A Journal of Nineteenth-Century Writing, 1790–1914, vol. 3, no. 1, May 2013, pp. 64–77. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mzh&AN=2016581900&site=eds-live. Accessed 21 June 2017. Discusses Egerton's Modernist approach to portraying female sexuality and related censorship.
Stetz, Margaret D. "Feminist Politics and the Two Irish 'Georges': Egerton Versus Shaw." Shaw and Feminisms: On Stage and Off. D. A. Hadfield and Jean Reynolds, eds. UP of Florida, 2013, pp. 133–43. Compares the approach to feminism by George Bernard Shaw and Egerton.