ABSTRACT
Anna Seward last will and testament, the juvenile letters, the unpublished manuscripts and fragments, together add brilliant new facets to the received view of her life. The distinctive voice speaking in its poetic tone should stand as a complete testament to her achievements. The conventions surrounding the law and its application to women came under Seward’s scrutiny. The burial place instructions lead on to a bequest of five hundred pounds for a sculptor to create a monument for Seward’s family. Seward’s attempts at self-memorialisation through her writings challenged several aspects of conventional expectations of women’s behaviour, and, as Southey’s assessment confirms, she came to be judged as egotistical rather than intellectual, and as vain rather than ambitious. Approximately half the original collection of letters that Seward wanted Constable to publish was removed, and, consequently, her plans for a self-constructed literary image were seriously impaired.
