fiction.wikisort.org - Writer

Search / Calendar

Dinah Maria Craik (/kreɪk/; born Dinah Maria Mulock, often credited as Miss Mulock or Mrs. Craik; 20 April 1826 – 12 October 1887) was an English novelist and poet. She is best remembered for her novel John Halifax, Gentleman, which presents the mid-Victorian ideals of English middle-class life.

Dinah Craik
1887 portrait by Hubert von Herkomer
Born
Dinah Maria Mulock

(1826-04-20)April 20, 1826
Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England
Died12 October 1887(1887-10-12) (aged 61)
Shortlands, London, England
Other namesMrs. Craik, Miss Mulock
Occupation
  • Novelist
  • poet
SpouseGeorge Lillie Craik

Life


Mulock was born at Stoke-on-Trent to Dinah and Thomas Mulock and raised in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, where her father was minister of a small independent nonconformist congregation.[1] Her childhood and early youth were affected by his unsettled fortunes, but she gained a good education from various quarters and felt called to be a writer.[2]

She came to London about 1846, at much the same time as two friends, Alexander Macmillan and Charles Edward Mudie. Introduced by Camilla Toulmin to Westland Marston, she rapidly made friends in London and found great encouragement for her stories for the young. In 1865 she married George Lillie Craik, a partner with Alexander Macmillan in the publishers Macmillan & Company, and nephew of George Lillie Craik. They adopted a foundling baby girl, Dorothy, in 1869.

At Shortlands, near Bromley, Kent, while preparing for Dorothy's wedding, Craik died of heart failure on 12 October 1887, aged 61. Her last words were said to have been: "Oh, if I could live four weeks longer! but no matter, no matter!" Her final book, An Unknown Country, appeared with Macmillan in 1887, the year of her death. Dorothy married Alexander Pilkington in 1887, but they divorced in 1911 and she later married Captain Richards of Macmine Castle. She and Alexander had a son, John Mulock Pilkington. He married Freda Roskelly and had a son and daughter with her.


Works


Mulock's early success began with the novel Cola Monti (1849). In the same year she produced her first three-volume novel, The Ogilvies, to great success. It was followed in 1850 by Olive, then by The Head of the Family in 1851 and Agatha's Husband in 1853, in which the author used her recollections of East Dorset. Mulock published the fairy story Alice Learmont in 1852, and collected numerous short stories from periodicals under the title of Avillion and other Tales in 1853. A similar collection appeared in 1857 under the title Nothing New.[2]

Well established in public favour as an author, Mulock took a cottage at Wildwood, North End, Hampstead and joined an extensive social circle. Her personal attractions were at the time were considerable; people kindly ascribed to her simple cordiality, staunch friendliness and thorough goodness of heart. In 1857 she published the work by which she is mainly remembered, John Halifax, Gentleman, a presentation of the ideals of English middle-class life. Mulock's next important work, A Life for a Life (1859), made more money and was perhaps more widely read than John Halifax at the time. It was followed by Mistress and Maid (1863) and Christian's Mistake (1865), and by didactic works such as A Woman's Thoughts about Women and Sermons out of Church. Another collection, The Unkind Word and Other Stories, included a scathing criticism of Benjamin Heath Malkin for overworking his son Thomas, a child prodigy who died at the age of seven. Craik criticizes Malkin for acceding to Thomas's requests to be educated at an early age, believing it contributed to his death, but also admits that Malkin's other sons did well in life. Later Craik returned to more fanciful tales and achieved success with The Little Lame Prince (1874). In 1881 she published a collection of earlier poems entitled Poems of Thirty Years, New and Old; some, such as Philip my King were addressed to her godson Philip Bourke Marston. "Douglas, Douglas, Tender and True" achieved wide popularity.[2]


Reception


Richard Garnett holds that "the genuine passion that filled her early works of fiction had not unnaturally faded out of middle life," to be replaced by didacticism and an increase in self-awareness. Garnett judges Craik's poetry as "a woman's poems, tender, domestic, and sometimes enthusiastic, always genuine song, and the product of real feeling."[3]


Bibliography


A comprehensive bibliography appears in Dinah Mulock Craik by Sally Mitchell.[4] This is reproduced more concisely in the Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature.[5] Additional contributions to periodicals:


Tales and sketches


The following all first appeared in periodicals before book form:

In 1871, Hannah was published in two volumes.


Early poems



References


  1. Sally Mitchell, "Craik, Dinah Maria (1826–1887)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, OUP, 2004) Retrieved 12 March 2017, pay-walled.
  2. Garnett 1894.
  3. Dinah Craik, The Unkind Word & Other Stories. London: Hurst and Blackett, 1870.
  4. Mitchell, Sally (1983). Dinah Mulock Craik. Boston: Twayne.
  5. Joanne Shattock (1999). The Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature: 1800-1900. Cambridge University Press. pp. 1–. ISBN 978-0-521-39100-9.
Attribution


Wikiquote has quotations related to Dinah Craik.
Wikisource has original works by or about:
Dinah Craik
Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article "Craik, Dinah Maria".

На других языках

- [en] Dinah Craik

[fr] Dinah Craik

Dinah Maria Craik (née Dinah Maria Mulock, souvent appelée Miss Mulock ou Mrs Craik) (Stoke-on-Trent, 20 avril 1826 - Shortlands, près de Bromley, Kent, 12 octobre 1887) est une écrivaine et poétesse anglaise.

[ru] Мьюлок, Дина Мария

Дина Мария Мьюлок (в замужестве Крейк) (20 апреля 1826 — 12 октября 1887) — британская писательница и поэтесса. Родилась в Сток-он-Тренте, выросла в Стаффордшире.


Текст в блоке "Читать" взят с сайта "Википедия" и доступен по лицензии Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike; в отдельных случаях могут действовать дополнительные условия.

Другой контент может иметь иную лицензию. Перед использованием материалов сайта WikiSort.org внимательно изучите правила лицензирования конкретных элементов наполнения сайта.

2019-2024
WikiSort.org - проект по пересортировке и дополнению контента Википедии