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Hays, Mary

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The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Romantic-Era Women's Writing

Abstract

Mary Hays (1759–1843) was a devoted religious Dissenter who published in a variety of genres (poetry, fiction, periodical essays, women’s biography, and historical works) for diverse audiences between 1781 and 1821. Her early novels were marked by sensibility and feminist ideals gained through her wide reading and close friendships with William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft; her later work consisted of historical works for young readers, moral and didactic fiction, and women’s biography.

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References

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  • ———, ed. 2013-14. Female Biography; Or, Memoirs of Illustrious and Celebrated Women. 6 vols. Chawton House Library Edition. London: Pickering & Chatto.

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Further Reading

  • Brooks, Marilyn. 1995. “Mary Hays: Finding a Voice in Dissent.” Enlightenment and Dissent 14: 3–24.

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  • ———. 2008. “Mary Hays’s The Victim of Prejudice: Chastity Renegotiated.” Women’s Writing 15 (1): 13–31.

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  • Green, Georgina. 2007. “Fiction and Autobiography in Mary Hays’s Memoirs of Emma Courtney (1796).” Literature Compass 4 (3): 709–20.

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  • James, Felicity. 2012. “Writing Female Biography: Mary Hays and the Life-Writing of Religious Dissent.” In Women’s Life Writing, 1700–1850, edited by Daniel Cook and Amy Culley, 117–32. Houndmills, Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.

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  • Murray, Julie. 2013. “Mary Hays and the Forms of Life.” Studies in Romanticism 52 (Spring): 61–84.

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  • Sharma, Anjana. 2001. “A Different Voice: Mary Hays’s The Memoirs of Emma Courtney.” Women’s Writing 8 (1): 139–68.

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  • Walker, Gina Luria. 2004. “Mary Hays (1759-1843): An Enlightened Quest.” In Women, Gender, and Enlightenment: A Comparative History, edited by Sarah Knott and Barbara Taylor, 493–518. Houndsmill, UK, and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

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  • ———. 2010. “Energetic Sympathies of Truth and Feeling: Mary Hays and Rational Dissent.” Enlightenment and Dissent 26: 259–85.

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  • ———. 2018. “I sought and made myself an extraordinary destiny.” Women’s Writing 25 (2): 124–49.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, GA, USA

    Timothy Whelan

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  1. Timothy Whelan
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Correspondence to Timothy Whelan .

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  1. University of Chichester, Chichester, UK

    Fiona Price

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Whelan, T. (2023). Hays, Mary. In: The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Romantic-Era Women's Writing. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11945-4_92-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11945-4_92-2

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-11945-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-11945-4

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Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Hays, Mary
    Published:
    04 March 2023

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11945-4_92-2

  2. Original

    Hays, Mary
    Published:
    28 August 2022

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11945-4_92-1

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