Rosa Mulholland

Rosa Mulholland (?-1921), also known as Lady Gilbert, was an Irish novelist, short story writer, and poet.

Irish women have long produced literature of the gothic, uncanny, and supernatural. Bending to Earth draws together twelve such tales. While none of the authors herein were considered primarily writers of fantastical fiction during their lifetimes, they each wandered at some point in their careers into more speculative realms - some only briefly, others for lengthier stays.Names such as Charlotte Riddell and Rosa Mulholland will already be familiar to aficionados of the eerie, while Katharine Tynan and Clotilde Graves are sure to gain new admirers. From a ghost story in the Swiss Alps to a premonition of death in the West of Ireland to strange rites in a South Pacific jungle, Bending to Earth showcases a diverse range of imaginative writing which spans the better part of a century.

In the late-nineteenth century Rosa Mulholland (1841-1921) achieved great popularity and acclaim for her many novels, written for both an adult audience and younger readers. Several of these novels chronicled the lives of the poor, often incorporating rural Irish settings and folklore. Earlier in her career, Mulholland became one of the select band of authors employed by Charles Dickens to write stories for his popular magazine All the Year Round, together with Wilkie Collins, Elizabeth Gaskell, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, and Amelia B. Edwards. Mulholland's best supernatural and weird short stories have been gathered together in the present collection, edited and introduced by Richard Dalby, to celebrate this gifted late Victorian "Mistress of the Macabre".

Rosa Mulholland was born at some point in 1841, an exact date is not known, in Belfast, Ireland. At first her chosen career was to be a painter but by the age of 15 she had turned to a literary life and attempted to publish her first book. She did submit several comical illustrations to Punch, but they were declined. However, Charles Dickens did review her work and encouraged her to continue writing. Having spent some years in the rugged west of Ireland, Rosa used the landscape and characters to help fuel her writing talents. Her twenty-two stanza poem 'Irene' (1862) was published by The Cornhill Magazine under her pseudonym 'Ruth Murray' with illustrations by the Pre-Raphaelite painter John Everett Millais. Her first novel published was 'Dunmara' (1864), was also written as by 'Ruth Murray'. This story of an Irish girl raised in Spain who makes her way in London as an artist, somewhat reflecting her own aspirations. Despite the rise of Female activism Mulholland supported but did not offer overt support in her writing, tending to present her heroines as 'good wives.' She noticed how women struggled for happiness in a world where erotic love and marriage were tied to issues of material security. Charles Dickens had published her in 'All the Year Round'. He even went as so far to suggest that her two novels, 'Hester's History' (1869) and 'The Wicked Woods of Tobereevil' (1872) be written for his periodical, then edited by himself. Dickens also republished two short stories 'The Late Miss Hollingford' (1886) and 'Eldergowan' (1874). Rosa's poetry was almost always well received by both critics and the public ever since 'Irene' had been published. The poems were released collectively as the 'Vagrant Verses', in 1886. Her novel of 1886, 'Marcella Gray', was first serialized in The Irish Monthly, and offered the example of a beneficent Catholic landowner as a solution to the Irish Question. On 29th May 1891 Rosa, by now also a devout Catholic, married John Thomas Gilbert, a renowned Dublin historian at St. Mary's Pro Cathedral in Dublin. Gilbert's history books were very valued and he was knighted in 1897, Rosa then assumed the title of Lady Gilbert. In her later years, she wrote fiction with strong-minded, independent women as heroines, and were directed mainly at young readers. These included 'Banshee Castle' (1895), 'The Walking Trees & Other Tales (1897), 'Spirit and Dust' (1908) and 'Dreams and Realities' (1916), Rosa also wrote a biography of her husband in 1905, who had died abruptly in 1898. She recounted that after a pleasant morning spent by the couple in their villa, Sir Gilbert had left alone to attend a meeting of the Council of the Royal Irish Academy, and died of sudden heart failure en-route. Rosa Mulholland, Lady Gilbert, died in Dublin, Ireland in on 21st April 1921 and is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery.

Reproduction of the original: Hetty Gray by Rosa Mulholland

Title: Hester's History. A novel. By Rosa Mulholland.]Publisher: British Library, Historical Print EditionsThe British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. It is one of the world's largest research libraries holding over 150 million items in all known languages and formats: books, journals, newspapers, sound recordings, patents, maps, stamps, prints and much more. Its collections include around 14 million books, along with substantial additional collections of manuscripts and historical items dating back as far as 300 BC.The NOVELS OF THE 18th & 19th CENTURIES collection includes books from the British Library digitised by Microsoft. The collection includes major and minor works from a period which saw the development and triumph of the English novel. These classics were written for a range of audiences and will engage any reading enthusiast. ++++The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification: ++++ British Library Anonymous; Mulholland, Rosa; 1869. 2 vol.; 8 . 12637.bb.13.