Small image of a man handing a book to a women across a counter.

At the Circulating Library

A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837–1901

A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837–1901

Author: Caroline Alice Roberts

Author: Caroline Alice Roberts (1848–1920)

Alternate Name(s): Lady Elgar (married name)

Biography: Caroline Alice Roberts was born in 1848 in India, the daughter of Major-general Sir Henry Gee Roberts and Julia Raikes. She was a published poet and novelist when she met the (then) music teacher Edward Elgar, nearly ten years her junior. In 1889, they married, much to the despair of her parents, and had one daughter. Roberts dedicated herself to supporting his musical career by serving as his copyist, laying out his scores, and acting as his business manager. They moved to London where Elgar's reputation grew culminating in his Enigma Variations in 1899. After Elgar was knighted in 1904, the family lived successively in Hereford, Birmingham, and Sussex. She died in 1920 of lung cancer. Her husband survived her by some fourteen years.

References: British Census (1891, 1901); Times (8 April 1920)

Fiction Titles:

  1. Marchcroft Manor: A Novel.  2 vol.  London: Remington, 1882.