Dinah Maria Mulock
Dinah Maria Mulock Craik, born in 1826, was a notable English novelist of the nineteenth century, emerging from a challenging family background. Her father, Thomas Mulock, struggled with his responsibilities, leading her mother to open a school to support the family. Dinah began writing poetry at a young age and transitioned to novels, publishing her first, "The Ogilvies," in 1849, followed by approximately twenty more novels. Her most acclaimed work, "John Halifax, Gentleman," published in 1856, is recognized for its social idealism and themes of self-help.
After marrying George Lillie Craik in 1864, she continued her literary career until her death in 1887. Although she is often categorized among the lesser-known female writers of her time, recent feminist perspectives have revived interest in her work, particularly in how it addresses the challenges faced by women in Victorian society. Mulock is remembered not only for her literary contributions but also for her compassion and moral sincerity, reflecting the complexities of her experiences as a woman and a writer.
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Subject Terms
Dinah Maria Mulock
English novelist
- Born: April 20, 1826
- Birthplace: Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England
- Died: October 12, 1887
- Place of death: Shortlands, Kent, England
Biography
Dinah Maria Mulock Craik was one of the many minor female novelists of nineteenth century England. Her father, Thomas Mulock, was something of ne’er-do-well. At the time of his daughter’s birth in 1826 he was operating in the capacity of a Nonconformist preacher at Stoke-on-Trent, but he soon left this calling for some nebulous business scheme, transferring the support of his family to his wife. {$S[A]Craik, Dinah Mulock;Mulock, Dinah Maria}
Mrs. Mulock, consequently, was forced to open a school in her home. She was assisted in this venture by her eldest daughter, Dinah, a precocious girl who had begun writing poetry at the age of ten. Mother and daughter continued to run the school until 1840, at which time Mrs. Mulock inherited a sizable fortune, and pedagogy was exchanged for travel. The entire family (Mr. Mulock had returned along with the inheritance) toured Europe for the next four years, and Dinah had the opportunity to study French, Italian, Greek, Latin, and even Erse (Gaelic).
In 1844 the unpredictable Thomas Mulock left home for good, and the remainder of the family settled in Staffordshire. The next year Mrs. Mulock died, leaving Dinah in charge of the younger children and the fortune.
Dinah, now nineteen, employed her talents in the writing of poems and stories for children. Four years later she turned to adult fiction with the production of The Ogilvies in 1849, a novel which she dedicated to her mother. After this effort, she produced some twenty more novels, not to mention sundry volumes of poems, tales, and children’s stories in the course of a career that reached its zenith with the publication of John Halifax, Gentleman in 1856. Mulock was married in 1864 to George Lillie Craik, a publisher eleven years her junior. She lived with him and, later, an adopted daughter at Corner House, Shortlands, Kent, until her death on October 12, 1887.
Overall, her reputation as a novelist is no greater than that of many somewhat dull and overly sentimental and didactic female (and male) fiction writers of Queen Victoria’s day. Yet in John Halifax, Gentleman she produced a work which makes demands upon the attention of the modern reader in its social idealism and its ethic of self-help. There has been a renewed interest in Mulock from a feminist point of view. Notably, her A Woman’s Thoughts About Women reflects her own experience of being the family breadwinner, and many of her other novels center on the problems of Victorian womanhood. She is remembered also as a woman of great tenderness and charity, one whose moral emphasis was, if somewhat unsound artistically, always sincere.
Bibliography
Altick, Richard D. The Presence of the Present: Topics of the Day in the Victorian Novel. Columbia: Ohio State University Press, 1991.
Colby, Robert A. “Miss Evans, Miss Mulock, and Hetty Sorrell.” English Language Notes 2 (1965).
Mitchell, Sally. Dinah Mulock Craik. Boston: Twayne, 1983.
Perkin, J. Russell. “Narrative Voice and the ‘Feminine’ Novelist: Dinah Mulock and George Eliot.” Victorian Review 18 (Summer, 1992).
Reade, A. L. “The Author of John Halifax, Gentleman.” Notes and Queries 196 (June 9, 1951).
Showalter, Elaine. “Dinah Mulock Craik and the Tactics of Sentiment: A Case Study In Victorian Female Authorship.” Feminist Studies 2 (1975).