Elizabeth Meeke

Elizabeth Meeke (13 November 1761 – c. October 1826?) was a prolific English author, and the stepsister of Frances Burney. She wrote around 30 novels published by the Minerva Press during the late eighteenth and early 19th centuries, most under the name of Mrs. Meeke, some under the pseudonym Gabrielli, and a few anonymously. Formerly speculated to be Mary Meeke, the wife of a Staffordshire vicar, "Mrs. Meeke" was conclusively identified as Elizabeth Meeke in an article by Simon Macdonald in 2013.[1] She is believed to have died around October 1826.[2]

Meeke's first published novel was Count St Blanchard in 1795; others include The Abbey of Clugny, The Mysterious Wife, Anecdotes of the Altamont Family, and Which is the Man? Her works include several translations from French, e.g. Elizabeth, or the Exiles of Siberia.

The third edition of Chamber's Cyclopaedia of English Literature gave a disparaging assessment of her work:

The novels are worthless and would be quite forgotten but for the mention of them in the Life of Macaulay, who in his younger days at least "all but knew them by heart". According to Macaulay's sister the most of them turn on the fortunes of some young man in a very low rank of life who ultimately proves to be the son of a duke.[3]

Bibliography

Novels

  • Count St. Blancard, or the Prejudiced Judge (1795)
  • The Abbey of Clugny (1795)
  • Palmira and Ermance (1797)
  • The Mysterious Wife (as by Gabrielli) (1797)
  • The Sicilian (anonymous) (1798)
  • Harcourt (anonymous) (1799)
  • Ellesmere (1799)
  • Anecdotes of the Altamont Family (anonymous) (1800)
  • Which is the Man? (1801)
  • The Mysterious Husband (as by Gabrielli) (1801)
  • Midnight Weddings (1802)
  • Independence (as by Gabrielli) (1802)
  • Amazement! (1804)
  • The Old Wife and the Young Husband (1804)
  • The Nine Days' Wonder (1804)
  • Something Odd! (anonymous) (1804)
  • The Wonder of the Village (anonymous) (1805)
  • Something Strange (as by Gabrielli) (1806)
  • "There Is a Secret, Find It Out!" (1808)
  • Langhton Priory (as by Gabrielli) (1809)
  • Stratagems Defeated (as by Gabrielli) (1811)
  • Matrimony, the Height of Bliss or Extreme of Misery (1811)
  • Conscience (1814)
  • Spanish Campaigns, or The Jew (1815)
  • The Veiled Protectress, or the Mysterious Mother (1818)
  • What Shall Be, Shall Be (1823)

Translations

Children's books

  • The Birth-Day Present
  • Mamma's Gift
  • The Parent's Offering to a Good Child
gollark: It's very contagious and has a 2% death rate. More if healthcare is overloaded.
gollark: That too.
gollark: I'm not actually sure if it's liquid there or not. In any case, it's not somewhere I would want to go.
gollark: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fe/Uranus-intern-en.pngSo there's a core which you could maybe stand on, but you would also probably die.
gollark: Don't think so. I'll find a composition diagram.

References
  1. Mandal, Anthony. "Mrs. Meeke and Minerva: The Mystery of the Marketplace." In Eighteenth-Century Life v. 42, no. 2, April 2018, pp. 131–151.
  2. Macdonald, Simon (2013). "Meeke , Elizabeth (1761–1826?)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/18509. Retrieved 12 March 2015. (subscription or UK public library membership required)
  3. Chambers, Cyclopaedia of English Literature, 1903, Vol. 3, p.178
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