Augusta Marryat (bapt. 23 September 1828[1] – 10 May 1899) was a British children's writer and illustrator, perhaps best known for her adventure novel Left to Themselves: A Boy's Adventure in Australia (1878)[2] – later published as The Young Lamberts. The novel is set in Australia, but she is not known to have ever visited the continent.[3]

Life

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Marryat was born in Fulham, Surrey, England,[4] the daughter of Frederick Marryat and his wife Catherine (née Shairp). Captain Marryat was a successful popular novelist and two of Augusta's sisters, Florence and Emilia, also became writers. Augusta wrote adventure fiction heavily infused with morality in her father's vein,[2] and Florence was a prolific author of sensationalist novels who also acquired a reputation for hanging out with spiritual mediums.

She died in Surrey in 1899.[5]

Selected works

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  • Lost in the Jungle: A Story of the Indian Mutiny (London: Griffith and Farran, 1877).
  • Left to Themselves: A Boy's Adventures in Australia (London: Frederick Warne, 1878).
  • The Reverse of the Shield: or, The Adventures of Grenville Le Marchant during the Franco-Prussian War (London: Frederick Warne, 1879)

A full bibliography is available in The Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature: 1800-1900, Vol. 4.[6]

References

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  1. ^ London, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1917
  2. ^ a b Moffat, Kirstine (2011). "Five Imperial Adventures in the Waikato". Journal of New Zealand Literature. 29 (2): 37–65. JSTOR 41410924.
  3. ^ Arnold, John; Hay, John A.; Kilner, Kerry (2007). The Bibliography of Australian Literature: K-O to 2000. U of Queensland P. p. 309. ISBN 9780702235986.
  4. ^ 1851 England Census
  5. ^ England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1966, 1973-1995
  6. ^ Shattock, Joanne (1999). The Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature: 1800-1900. Cambridge UP. pp. 1629–30. ISBN 9780521391009.
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