Emily Eden (3 March 1797 – 5 August 1869) was an English poet and novelist who gave witty accounts of English life in the early 19th century. She wrote a celebrated account of her travels in India, and two novels that sold well. She was also an accomplished amateur artist.

Family ties

Born in Westminster, Eden was the seventh daughter of

William Eden, 1st Baron Auckland William Eden, 1st Baron Auckland, PC (Ire), FRS (3 April 174528 May 1814) was a British diplomat and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1774 to 1793. Early life A member of the influential Eden family, Auckland was a younger son ...

, and his wife Eleanor Elliot. She was the great-great-great-aunt of Prime Minister Anthony Eden. In her late thirties, she and her sister Fanny travelled to India, where her brother

George Eden, 1st Earl of Auckland George Eden, 1st Earl of Auckland, (25 August 1784 – 1 January 1849) was an English Whig politician and colonial administrator. He was thrice First Lord of the Admiralty and also served as Governor-General of India between 1836 and 1842 ...

was in residence as Governor-General from 1835 to 1842. She wrote accounts of her time in India, later collected in the volume ''Up The Country: Letters Written to Her Sister from the Upper Provinces of India'' (1867). While the emphasis of her Indian writings was on travel descriptions, local colour and details of the ceremonial and social functions that she attended, Eden also provided a perceptive record of the major political events that occurred during her brother's term of office. These included the total destruction of a British and Indian army during the retreat from Kabul in 1842; a disaster for which George Eden was held partly responsible.

Fiction

Eden wrote two successful novels: ''The Semi-Detached House'' (1859) and ''The Semi-Attached Couple'' (1860). The latter was written in 1829, but not published until 1860. Both have a comic touch that critics have compared with that of Jane Austen, who was Emily's favourite author. The first of the two has been described as "an accomplished study in the social contrasts of aristocratic style, bourgeois respectability and crass vulgarity." Eden's letters were published by Violet Dickinson, a close friend of

Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf was born i ...

. They contain memorable comments on English public life, most famously her welcome for the new

King William IV William IV (William Henry; 21 August 1765 – 20 June 1837) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from 26 June 1830 until his death in 1837. The third son of George III, William succeeded hi ...

as "an immense improvement on the last unforgiving animal

George IV George IV (George Augustus Frederick; 12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from the death of his father, King George III, on 29 January 1820, until his own death ten y ...

— this man at least wishes to make everybody happy." Emily Eden's niece Eleanor Lena Eden also took to writing, mainly children's books under the pseudonym Lena. The structure of her 1867 novel ''Dumbleton Common'', which has "Little Miss Patty" detailing gossip in a hamlet outside London, was inspired by '' Cranford''.

Lord Melbourne

Emily Eden never married and was financially well enough off not to need to write, but did so out of passion. After the death of

Lady Caroline Lamb Lady Caroline Lamb (née Ponsonby; 13 November 1785 – 25 January 1828) was an Anglo-Irish aristocrat and novelist, best known for ''Glenarvon'', a Gothic novel. In 1812 she had an affair with Lord Byron, whom she described as "mad, bad, and ...

, mutual friends hoped she might marry

Lord Melbourne William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, (15 March 177924 November 1848), in some sources called Henry William Lamb, was a British Whig politician who served as Home Secretary (1830–1834) and Prime Minister (1834 and 1835–1841). His first pre ...

, who had become a close friend, although she claimed to find him "bewildering" and to be shocked by his profanity. Melbourne's biographer

Lord David Cecil Lord Edward Christian David Gascoyne-Cecil, CH (9 April 1902 – 1 January 1986) was a British biographer, historian, and scholar. He held the style of "Lord" by courtesy, as a younger son of a marquess. Early life and studies David Cecil was ...

remarks that it might have been an excellent thing if they had married, but "love is not the child of wisdom, and neither of them wanted to."

Personality

Her letters explored London, the colonies, and the high seas. Prudence Hannay argues that armed with "strong feelings and a forthright outlook on life, acute powers of observation and a gift of beautifully translating into words the sense of the ridiculous", she devoted her life to writing.Prudence Hannay, "Emily Eden as a Letter-Writer", ''History Today'' (1971) 21#7 pp 491-501. In a 2013 history of her brother's term as Governor General in India, Emily Eden is described as a "waspish but adoring" sister, whose diary was to become one of the most celebrated travel accounts of the period.

References

External links