Catherine Macaulay Critical Essay | Critical Essay by Lucy Martin Donnelly

Critical Essay by Lucy Martin Donnelly

SOURCE: “The Celebrated Mrs. Macaulay,” in The William and Mary Quarterly, Third Series, Vol. 6, No. 2, April 1949, pp. 173-207.

In the following essay, one of the earliest critical commentaries on Macaulay's life and work, Donnelly argues that despite the many flaws in the historian's writings, Macaulay should be remembered as one of the great proponents of political liberty.

Years ago in London the director of a book shop in high repute urged upon me the importance of Catharine Macaulay. I drew back in surprise. Her works have long been reduced to dusty out of the way shelves and in “the historian in petticoats” personally I felt little or no interest. Like most amateurs of the eighteenth century I affected the Blue Stockings of Mrs. Montagu's circle, or better still the great ladies, Lady Hervey and Mrs. Delany, and in a later generation Lady Louisa Stuart, whose memoirs reflect...
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