Matilda Betham-Edwards

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Novelist, Travel Writer and Francophile

Category:	Biography
Author:	Joan Rees
Publisher:	The Hastings Press
Price:	£9.99
ISBN:	1-904-109-012
Pages:	148
Reviewed in issue:	4

This biography on the life of the Victorian writer Betham-Edwards makes interesting reading. Over 40 of her works are referred to in the text, and together with a comprehensive bibliography, anyone interested in Victorian literature has loads of information to refer to.

Matilda’s relationship with her cousin Amelia runs throughout her long career, with the two lives happening almost in parallel. They were both novelists, and as Matilda became attached to France, so did Amelia to Egypt (see Joan’s book Amelia Edwards: Novelist, Traveller and Egyptologist).

Born a farmer’s daughter in Suffolk, Matilda finished school at the age of twelve. She taught herself classical and modern languages, and from childhood had been an insatiable observer of people and their behaviour. During her long writing life she travelled extensively and met many influential people. One such person was Bombonnel, and she eagerly pursued the acquaintance. She wrote capaciously on the stories he told her. When the Franco-Prussian war broke out he became a ruthless guerrilla fighter, and won the admiration of Victor Hugo.

Barbara Bodichon invited Matilda on a second visit to North Africa, and they also travelled through France and Spain. Matilda’s interests were varied and wide ranging, but the main focus to her life and work was to the French and France, which she considered to be her second native land. The many contacts and friends she made included George Eliot, Henry James, author John Morley and composer Franz Liszt.

There is so much in this book that it is hard to comprehend that it is contained in only 148 pages.

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