Peggy Webling
Peggy Webling was a British writer born in London on January 1, 1871, known for her contributions to literature during a time when women's voices were often marginalized. Coming from a progressive family, she was influenced by her father's liberal views, which shaped her outspoken attitudes towards gender roles and women's treatment in society. Although she received no formal education, Webling's early exposure to theatrical performances and literary figures inspired her writing journey.
She began her literary career with short stories, publishing her first in 1890, and later compiled her works into a collection titled *Poems and Stories* around 1896. Webling ventured into novel writing, with her notable work *Blue Jay* released in 1906, reflecting her experiences and travels. Her poetry, particularly in the 1919 collection *Verses to Men*, highlights complex relationships between men and women, addressing issues of male dominance and societal expectations.
Webling is also recognized for her stage adaptation of Frankenstein, which significantly impacted the public's perception of the creature. While some of her literary output may be considered formulaic, her poetry offers a distinct feminist perspective on Victorian life and remains an important contribution to discussions of gender in literature.
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Peggy Webling
- Born: January 1, 1871
- Birthplace: London, England
- Died: 1949
Biography
Peggy Webling was born in London on January 1, 1871, one of the six daughters of Robert James and Maria Webling. She was instructed at home, receiving no formal education. However, her father’s liberal views may be said to have influenced Webling in that her own outspokenness concerning gender roles and the treatment of women set her apart from the typical Victorian woman. Further influential to her writing were the early theatrical performances she attended, which not only brought her into the society of prominent literary figures, including Oscar Wilde, Robert Browning, Mark Twain, and John Ruskin, but also allowed her to travel abroad to Canada and America.
On her first trip to Canada when she was nineteen, Webling met Canadian poet and performer Pauline Johnson, whose poetry would influence Webling’s own. Also during that trip, Webling wrote her first short story which was published in 1890 in the Expositor newspaper. Continuing to write short stories, Webling put together Poems and Stories (c. 1896), a volume of work that included her stories and her sister Lucy Webling’s poetry. Webling also tried her hand at writing novels, with her first work in this genre, Blue Jay, appearing in 1906. Drawn from her theatrical experiences, acquaintances, and travels in Canada, this first work features a Canadian acrobat and is representative of most of her formulaic novels.
After publishing almost a dozen novels, Webling privately printed a book of verse, Verses to Men (1919), the work on which her reputation as an early feminist is based. Verses to Men is an exploration of relationships between men and women that employs a variety of tones, styles, and meters, including structure and verse patterns that could be found in many of the conduct books of the day. Two of the most outstanding pieces are “The Victorian Papa,” which illuminates a father’s overpowering egomania and the demands it placed on every woman in his sphere, and “Ode to a Husband (An Attempt to Write When Inspired by His Presence),” which shows the negative effects of male dominance, this time in the form of a husband, on a woman’s creative endeavors. The ideas expressed in these two poems are forerunners of the ideas in Virginia Woolf’s later novel To the Lighthouse. Another poem, “To a Boy of Long Ago,” is also remarkable for Webling’s view that premarital sex is neither sinful nor unnatural.
Webling is perhaps best remembered for her stage adaptation of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s novel Frankenstein that not only forever imprinted the creature’s name as Frankenstein in the public mind but also served as the basis for the famous 1931 film produced by Universal Studios and starring Boris Karloff. While the majority of Webling’s literary output is unremarkable, her poetry provides an intriguing, feminist perspective on Victorian life for a woman and an artist.