Mary Augusta Ward Summary

Mrs. Humphry Ward, born Mary Augusta Arnold, won worldwide recognition with the publication of Robert Elsmere (1888), which dramatized for countless readers the loss of faith in orthodox Christianity... Read more

Critical Essay by Introduciion Ward was a popular and prolific novelist who is closely identified with the Victorian era in English life and literature. In her numerous novels she examined the social... Read more

Critical Essay by Lionel Johnson (essay Date 1894) [In the following excerpt, originally published in The Academy in 1894, Johnson reviews Marcella.] That Marcella is a good novel, and a very much... Read more

Critical Essay by William Lyon Phelps (essay Date 1910) [In the following excerpt, Phelps challenges Ward's high literary reputation.] It is high time that somebody spoke out his mind about... Read more

Critical Essay by Herbert L. Stewart (essay Date 1920) [In the following excerpt, Stewart examines Ward's theological novels.] There are few of [Mrs Ward's] books from which the reli... Read more

Critical Essay by Vineta Colby (essay Date 1970) [Colby is an American educator and critic who has written several studies of Victorian literature. In the following excerpt, she examines the appeal o... Read more

Critical Essay by Mildred L. Culp (essay Date 1982) [In the following excerpt, Culp considers the relationship between the artistic and the ideological in Robert Elsmere.] Two recent studies of th... Read more

Critical Essay by J. E. Sait (essay Date 1988) [In the following excerpt, Sait discusses Ward's works of the First World War era.] Undoubtedly the Great War was recognised as the Great Subj... Read more

Critical Essay by Biography Jones, Enid Huws. Mrs. Humphry Ward. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1973, 180 p. Appreciative biography. According to Jones, "Ward's life is not so ... Read more

Critical Essay by Major Works Ward's works largely comprise moralistic considerations of various issues that engaged Victorian society. Her most famous novel, Robert Elsmere, details the theol... Read more

Critical Essay by Principal Works Miss Bretherton (novel) 1884 Robert Elsmere (novel) 1888 The History of David Grieve (novel) 1892 Marcella (novel) 1894 The Story of Bessie Costrell (nov... Read more

Critical Essay by W. E. Gladstone (essay Date 1888) [Gladstone was a prominent English statesman and author who served four times as Prime Minister and wrote numerous learned essays on such diverse s... Read more

Critical Essay by Oscar Wilde on Robert Elsmere: Robert Elsmere is of course a masterpiece—a masterpiece of the 'genre ennuyeux,' the one form of literature that the English peop... Read more