Isabella Kelly, née Fordyce, also Isabella Hedgeland (1759–1857) was a Scottish novelist and

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wri ...

.Richard Greene, "Kelly, Isabella (baptised 1759, died 1857)", rev. Pam Perkins, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 200
Retrieved 19 March 2015
/ref> Her novels have been said to resemble those of

Ann Radcliffe Ann Radcliffe (née Ward; 9 July 1764 – 7 February 1823) was an English novelist and a pioneer of Gothic fiction. Her technique of explaining apparently supernatural elements in her novels has been credited with gaining respectability for G ...

Family

Isabella Fordyce was born at Cairnburgh Castle in the

Scottish Highlands The Highlands ( sco, the Hielands; gd, a’ Ghàidhealtachd , 'the place of the Gaels') is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland S ...

and baptised on 4 May 1759, as the daughter of William Fordyce, Royal Marines officer and later courtier, and Elizabeth (née Fraser). Both her parents had been disowned after their marriage by their wealthy Scottish families. She married Robert Hawke Kelly (died in or before 1807, probably in Madras), a spendthrift East India Company officer. They had at least three children, including two daughters (one of whom may have died in childhood) and a lawyer son,

Fitzroy Edward Kelly Sir Fitzroy Edward Kelly (9 October 1796 – 18 September 1880) was an English commercial lawyer, Tory politician and judge. He was the last Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer Background and education Kelly was born in London, the son of Rober ...

, who became

Attorney-General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...

. Another son William was strongly befriended as a boy by the writer Matthew Lewis, perhaps with sexual intent. Her second marriage, to a merchant named Hedgeland, ended after a year with his death.''The Feminist Companion to Literature in English'', Virginia Blain, Patricia Clements and Isobel Grundy, eds (London: Batsford, 1990), pp. 602–603. She died aged 98 at 20

Chapel Street Chapel Street is a street in Melbourne, Victoria, running along the inner suburbs of South Yarra, Prahran, Windsor, St Kilda and St Kilda East. Route Chapel Street is essentially straight and runs for over 4.14 kilometres along an approxim ...

(presumably the one in

Belgravia Belgravia () is a district in Central London, covering parts of the areas of both the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Belgravia was known as the 'Five Fields' during the Tudor Period, and became a dang ...

), London, on 25 June 1857 and was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery.

Poems

Kelly's ''Collection of Poems and Fables'' (1794, 2nd e. 1807) was well subscribed. She claimed that several pieces in it had been written before she was 14. It "includes pathos and social comedy.... She later called her poems 'too personal to please in general'."

Novels

Kelly's ten novels "cater dto popular taste with seemingly haunted abbeys, cross-dressing for disguise, and the fruits of unchastity." She told the Royal Literary Fund in 1832 that she had written ten novels, educational works, and some of a new historical novel that she knew was outdated. Several were published by

Minerva Press Minerva Press was a publishing house, noted for creating a lucrative market in sentimental and Gothic fiction in the late 18th century and early 19th century. It was established by William Lane (c. 1745–1814) at No 33 Leadenhall Street, Lon ...

. Critics have noted a similarity to the work of Ann Radcliffe in her approach to the Gothic novel. The ''

British Critic The ''British Critic: A New Review'' was a quarterly publication, established in 1793 as a conservative and high-church review journal riding the tide of British reaction against the French Revolution. The headquarters was in London. The journa ...

'', writing in 1798, concedes that ''Joscelina...'' is innocent and instructive, but faults it for leading the heroine "through such a variety of trials and miseries, as could hardly fall to the lot of any human creature." In ''Eva'', Kelly was one of several authors of the day, including Matthew Lewis, to attack celibacy, through her character Agatha, who refuses to go into a nunnery because it is cruelly oppressive to deny women "the normal blessings of home and children." Her novel ''The Secret'' was dismissed briefly but squarely by the ''Monthly Review'' in October 1806: "Those who delight in useless mysteries and unnecessary horrors may perhaps be gratified by reading these volumes: but, in our judgment, the contemplation of such stories is attended with worse consequences than the mere waste of time. It tends to produce a sickly and irritable state of mind, gives a temporary shock even to intellects that are sound and healthy, but enervates and permanently diseases those which are weak." *''Madeline, or The Castle of Montgomery'' (1794) (published anonymously) *''The Abbey of St Asaph'' (1795) ("by the author of Madeline") *''The Ruins of Avondale Priory'' (1796) *''Joscelina, or The Rewards of Benevolence'' (1797) *''Eva'' (1799) *''Ruthinglenne, or The Critical Moment'' (1801) *''Edwardina (1801) (published under the pseudonym "Catherine Harris") *''The Baron's Daughter'' (1802) *''A Modern Incident in Domestic Life'' (1803) *''The Secret'' (1805) *''Jane de Dunstaneville, or Characters as They Are'' (1813)

Non-fiction

*A French grammar for children and other educational works *''Instructive Anecdotes for Youth'' (1819) *''A Memoir of the Late Mrs. Henrietta Fordyce'' (an elderly relative of hers seen by contemporaries as an archetypal Scots governess, published anonymously, 1823)Mary Catherine Moran, "Fordyce , Henrietta (1734–1823)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 200
Retrieved 20 March 2015
/ref>

References

External links