Emily Eden (3 March 1797 – 5 August 1869) was an English poet and novelist who gave witty accounts of life in the 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, Privy Council of Ireland, PC (Ire), Royal Society, FRS (3 April 174528 May 1814) was a British diplomat and politician who sat in the British House of Commons, House of Commons from 1774 to 1793. Early life A m ...

, and his wife Eleanor Elliot. She was the great-great-great-aunt of Prime Minister

Anthony Eden Robert Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon (12 June 1897 – 14 January 1977) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1955 until his resignation in 1957. Achi ...

The India years

In her late thirties, she and her sister Fanny travelled to India, where her brother George Eden, 1st Earl of Auckland was in residence as

Governor-General Governor-general (plural governors-general), or governor general (plural governors general), is the title of an official, most prominently associated with the British Empire. In the context of the governors-general and former British colonies, ...

from 1835 to 1842. She wrote accounts of her time there, which were journal-letters to her other sister, Mary Drummond, 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. Eden was also an artist who, during her years in India, created portraits and paintings of Indian princes, soldiers, and servants with both technical skill and "psychological insights". Her book, ''Portraits of the Princes and People of India,'' was published in 1844. IT contained 24 lithographs that were drawn from her sketches of important Indian subjects such as Dost Mahomed Khan and Ranjit Singh. Eden also collected coins.

Fiction

Eden wrote two successful novels: ''The Semi-Detached House'' (1859) and ''The Semi-Attached Couple'' (1860). Semi-detached houses were becoming a more widespread form of dwelling for the middle classes, as Britain continued to industrialise and urbanise. The latter book was written in 1829, but not published until 1860. Both have a comic touch that critics have compared with that of

Jane Austen Jane Austen ( ; 16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist known primarily for #List of works, her six novels, which implicitly interpret, critique, and comment on the English landed gentry at the end of the 18th century ...

, who was Eden's favourite author. The first of the two has been described by John Sutherland 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 and one of the most influential 20th-century modernist authors. She helped to pioneer the use of stream of consciousness narration as a literary device. Vir ...

. They contain memorable comments on English public life, most famously her welcome for the new King William IV as "an immense improvement on the last unforgiving animal George IV — 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, mutual friends hoped she might marry Lord Melbourne, 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 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 of 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

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Eden, Emily 1797 births 1869 deaths Emily English letter writers English women letter writers English women novelists English feminist writers 19th-century English women writers 19th-century English novelists English women non-fiction writers Daughters of barons English women poets Women numismatists 19th-century English non-fiction writers English travel writers Writers from Westminster 19th-century English poets Victorian women writers Victorian novelists Victorian poets 19th-century English painters English women painters