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Eliza Margaret Jane Humphreys (14 June 1850 – 1 January 1938) (born Gollan) was an English novelist. == Biography == Eliza Margaret Jane Gollan was born at Gollanfield in Inverness-shire, the daughter of John Gollan, a Scottish businessman. Her father travelled extensively, visiting India and Australia and Eliza received little formal education, however she was able to use her experience of Australia to write a semi-autobiographical novel ‘Sheba’ in 1889, using the pen-name ‘Rita’. Eliza was married twice: first to the Anglo-German musician Karl Booth, with whom she had three sons; second to Anglo-Irish singer William Humphreys, with whom she had a daughter. The unhappy first marriage provided Eliza with material for 4 novels ‘Saba Macdonald’ (1906) ‘Grandmother’ (1927), ‘The Wand’ring Darling’ (1928) and ‘Jean and Jeanette’ (1929). Eliza spent her married life in Cork, Ireland, Bournemouth and Bath, Somerset. In 1910, she was listed as one of the celebrities of Bournemouth, with books published in French, German and Italian; at the time she was undertaking a tour of America. Writing as ‘Rita’, Eliza was prolific (she wrote 120 published works) and popular (‘Peg the Rake’ (1894) sold 160,000 copies). Her stories often featured aristocratic characters, and exotic settings. She occasionally made conservative political statements, for instance with ‘A Husband of No Importance’ (1894) which expressed her disapproval of ‘new women’ novels, in which the heroine would ape the successes of men. Nevertheless Eliza was herself an example of women earning their own success, and she helped to found the Writers’ Club for Women. She was critical of ideas being imported from America, a theme she explored in her 1907 essay ‘The Increase of Vulgarity Amongst Women’. After meeting Madame Blavatsky she became interested in Theosophy and wrote ‘Calvary: A Tragedy of Sects’ (1909) exploring religious themes. This was one of her books that was made into a film. After the First World War Eliza struggled financially, as her husband became an invalid and her style of writing went out of fashion. However Queen Mary liked her books and ordered a complete set. Eliza’s final book was an autobiography ‘Recollections of a Literary Life’ (1936). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Eliza Humphreys」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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