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: Mary Eleanor Benson

Author: Mary Eleanor Benson (1863–1890)

Biography: Mary Eleanor Benson was born in 1863 in Sandhurst, Berkshire, the eldest daughter of Edward White Benson (1829–1896), the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Mary Sidgwick. Her siblings include poet Arthur Christopher, Egyptologist Margaret, novelist Edward Frederic, and author Robert Hugh. She attended Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, before moving to London where she worked with the poor in Lambeth, wrote articles and stories for periodicals, and authored The Story of Russia (1885). Benson was the center of a large circle of lady workers and also the chief founder of the Women's University Settlement in Southwark in 1887. She died in 1890 of diphtheria. Her only novel, At Sundry Times and in Divers Manners, was published posthumously with a memoir by her brother.

Author Tags:

References: Boase; British Census (1881); DNB (Edward White Benson); Times (28 October 1890)

Fiction Titles:

  1. At Sundry Times and in Divers Manners.  2 vol.  London: Kegan Paul, 1891.