The Half-Caste
Dinah Mulock Craik’s The Half-Caste concerns the coming-of-age of its title character, the mixed-race Zillah Le Poer, daughter of an English merchant and an Indian princess. Sent back to England as a young girl, Zillah has no knowledge that she is an heiress. She lives with her uncle Le Poer, his wife, and two daughters,…
The Uninhabited House
Charlotte Riddell’s The Uninhabited House (1875) tells the story of River Hall and the secrets that are hidden behind its doors. Within this haunted house, Riddell combines the supernatural with Victorian anxieties over stolen inheritance, crime, greed, and class mobility. This new Broadview Edition includes a detailed biography of Charlotte Riddell and illustrations from the…
Instructional Treatise from A Book for Governesses
The Half-Caste The following is an excerpt from Appendix C of our recently published The Half-Caste by Dinah Mulock Craik, edited by Melissa Edmundson. [volume editor’s note] The social and financial status of the Victorian governess was a topic of debate throughout the nineteenth century…Emily Peart’s A Book for Governesses (1868) provides an example of the many…
The Struggle for Fame: An Interview with Charlotte Riddell
[Melissa Edmundson, editor of our new edition of Charlotte Riddell’s The Uninhabited House (1875), shares the following excerpt from Helen C. Black’s interview with Riddell, published in Notable Women Authors of the Day (1893).] Helen C. Black’s interview with Charlotte Riddell provides a fascinating insight into the author’s private life and professional career. Black visited…