Augusta Marryat Explained

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

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, 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

• 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]

External links

• (no catalogue records December 2018)

Notes and References

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