Descriptive Summary
Administrative Information
Biography
Scope and Content
Organization and Arrangement
Indexing Terms
Related Material
Descriptive Summary
Title: Sydney Morgan Commonplace Books
Date (inclusive): [between 1800 and 1810]
Collection number: 170/198
Creator:
Morgan, Lady (Sydney), 1783-1859
Extent:
3 v. (132, 73 with 5 loose papers enclosed, 50 leaves) : paper ; 195 x 170 mm.
Abstract: Three volumes of commonplace books by Sidney Owenson (aka Sydney Owenson, later known as Lady Morgan). The volumes were filled
during the prolific first decade of her writing career.
Language: Finding aid is written in
English.
Repository:
University of California, Los Angeles. Library Special Collections.
Los Angeles, California 90095-1575
Physical location: Stored off-site at SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact the UCLA Library Special
Collections Reference Desk for paging information.
Administrative Information
Restrictions on Access
COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF: Open for research. Advance notice required for access. Contact the UCLA Library Special
Collections Reference Desk for paging information.
Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
Property rights to the physical object belong to the UCLA Library Special Collections. Literary rights, including copyright,
are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright
and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
Processing Note
Cataloged by Manushag Powell, with assistance from Jain Fletcher and Laurel McPhee in the Center For Primary Research and
Training (CFPRT), July 2004.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Sydney Morgan Commonplace Books (Collection 170/198). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles
E. Young Research Library.
UCLA Catalog Record ID
Biography
Lady Morgan, born Sydney Owenson (ca. December 25, 1776-April 16, 1859) was a highly successful though somewhat controversial
Anglo-Irish Romantic writer, whose works include historical romances, drama, poetry, travel narrative, history, biography
and critical essays. Owenson was distinguished by her ability to use historical romances to critique Anglo-Irish relations
and the perils of careless and avaricious imperialism while reviving ethnic pride in Irish culture. The daughter of celebrated
Irish actor and nationalist, Robert Owenson, and a Shropshire woman named Jane Hill, Owenson was raised in Dublin. She received
a gentlewoman's education and was an avid autodidact as well. After her mother died and her father suffered a series of financial
difficulties, Owenson went to work as a governess, and later as a writer, to help support herself and her family.
These volumes of extracts span roughly the first decade of her writing career. Her first work,
Poems, Dedicated by Permission to the Countess of Moira, was published in 1801 and her first novel,
St. Clair, or, the
Heiress of Desmond (ca. 1803) came shortly thereafter; from then on she ceased governessing altogether in favor of writing. Owenson became one
of the early creators of the carefully-researched historical fiction / historical romance genre which made Walter Scott famous.
Her work, however, is more nationalistic than Scott's. Although some of her novels, such as
The Novice of Saint Dominick (1807) and
The Missionary (1811) do not address Ireland directly, she worked throughout her career to correct English prejudices about the history,
behavior, and character of the Irish. She accomplished this most successfully in her third novel,
The Wild Irish Girl (1806). The heroine, Glorvina, was so wildly popular as to make Celtic accessories fashionable in women's dress. In addition
to nine novels, Owenson published essays, drama, a collection of Irish songs, a biography of the painter Salvatore Rosa, historical
works (most notably
Woman and Her Master [1840], a feminist approach to history), and the well-received travel narratives
France (1817) and
Italy (1821).
Owenson became Lady Morgan in 1812 when she married Sir Thomas Charles Morgan, who had been knighted in 1811. Though the match
seems to have been successful, a condition of their marriage, an unusual one for the time, was the keeping of separate finances.
This measure was due in part to Owenson's life-long preference for independence, and her continued success as a professional
writer.
Scope and Content
This set of commonplace books consists of three independent volumes given separate titles by the author. Each volume contains
an index or table of contents. Based on the dates found in the text, they would have been compiled largely while the author
was living in Ireland, though Volume II seems to have accompanied the author to London. Collectively, the volumes include
quotations, biographical notes, literary extracts, letters, and original commentary and narrative works.
Organization and Arrangement
The volumes are as follows:
- Volume I: Extracts from Various Works (circa 1800-1801?)
- Volume II: Extracts and Reflections from 1800 (1800-?)
- Volume III: Extraits Francoises Compilês par Sidney Owenson (circa 1800?).
Indexing Terms
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Genres and Forms of Material
Manuscripts.
Related Material