ABSTRACT
Harriet Martineau was at the forefront of two significant shifts in the writing of fiction during the 1830s. Her first innovation was through her series of short stories Illustrations of Political Economy (1832–4), which used fictional tales to educate the reading public on social and economic matters, as well as brought in greater class inclusiveness to the characters she portrayed. Martineau’s second pioneering move was her groundbreaking 1839 novel Deerbrook, in which she pre-empted many of the issues that became popular topics for female authors who followed her. These include the condition of governesses, local community and the danger of gossip, the medical profession, and the subjects of politics and public health. The term of novelist is pertinent for Martineau, appropriating Samuel Johnson’s dictionary definition of ‘Novelist’ as ‘Innovator of novelty’ [newness]. 1 Yet Martineau’s significant contribution and skills as an author were overshadowed at the time of writing by critics who mocked her unmarried status and her attempts to engage with the ‘masculine’ topics of politics and economics, despite her adoption of the acceptably ‘feminine’ vehicle of fiction. The resurgence of interest in Martineau’s work by the second wave of feminists in the 1980s and ’90s understandably tended to focus more on her feminist journalism and politics than her works of fiction. It is significant that Ali Smith chose as her subject for the Inaugural Harriet Martineau lecture in 2013 Martineau’s role as a social reformer, admitting that she had not read Deerbrook. 2 Instead Smith focused on Martineau’s 1840 historical novel The Hour and the Man, a choice reinforcing Martineau’s reputation as political commentator rather than novelist.
