Sarah Green (
fl. 1790 – 1825) was an Irish-English author, one of the ten most prolific novelists of the first two decades of the nineteenth century.[1]
Life & writing
Green was probably born in
Ireland and then later moved to
London. Very little is known of her aside from what has been pieced together of her publishing history. She produced works in an array of genres: novels, tales, romances, and, notably, like
Jane Austen, mock-romances.[1] She also wrote at least one religious work, as well as conduct literature, a translation, and editing work. Eight of her works were published with the popular
Minerva Press by
William Lane or his successor, Anthony Newman. "It is ironic," one commentator has written, that her moral tract, Mental improvement for a young lady (1793) "condemns all novels save those of
Fanny Burney."[2] Later works, however, engage with a range of other writers: in Scotch Novel Reading (1824), in addition to Burney, Green variously refers to or evokes
Lord Byron,
Charlotte Dacre,
Charlotte Lennox,
Sydney Owenson,
Ann Radcliffe, and
Walter Scott.[3] Her Private History of the Court of England (privately printed, 1808) is a fictionalized account of the life of writer
Mary Robinson.[1]
Initially Green published anonymously, but after 1810 she began to publish under her own name.
[Anonymous]. Charles Henley: or, the fugitive restored. London: William Lane, 1790.
Court intrigue, or the victim of constancy, an historical romance. In two volumes. By the author of Mental Improvement. London: Minerva Press, William Lane, 1799.
Tankerville Family, in three volumes. By a lady. London: Robert Dutton; Clement Chapple, 1808.
[Anonymous]. The Private History of the Court of England. In two volumes. London: Printed for the Author, and sold by B. Crosby & Co., 1808; 2nd corrected ed. 1808.
Tales of the Manor. By the author of The Private History of The Court of England, &c. &c. In two volumes. London: Benjamin Crosby and Co., 1809.
S.G. Romance Readers and Romance Writers: A Satirical Novel. In Three Vols. By the Author of A Private History of the Court of England, &c. London: T. Hookham, Junior, and E. T. Hookham, 1810.[4]
The Festival of St Jago. A Spanish Romance. In Two Volumes. By the author of The Tankerville Family ... &c. London: Minerva Press, A. K. Newman and Co., 1810.
Mrs. S. G****. The Reformist!!! A Serio-Comic Political Novel. In Two Volumes. London: Minerva Press, A. K. Newman and Co., 1810;[5] 2nd ed. in 1816.[6]
The Royal Exile; or, Victims of Human Passions: An Historical Romance of the Sixteenth Century. By Mrs. Green. In Four Volumes. London: John Joseph Stockdale, 1810; 2nd ed. 1811.
Good Men of Modern Date. A Satirical Tale. In Three Volumes. By Mrs. Green. London: Thomas Tegg, 1811.
Deception. A Fashionable Novel, in three volumes, founded on Facts. By Mrs. Green... London: Sherwood, Neely, and Jones, 1813.
The Carthusian Friar; or, The Mysteries of Montanville. A Posthumous Romance. In Four Volumes. Corrected and Revised by An Author of Celebrity. London: Sherwood, Neely, and Jones; C. Chapple, 1814.
The Fugitive; or, Family Incidents. In Three Volumes. By the author of Private History of the Court of England ... &c. London: Hannah Black, Parry, & Co., 1814; 2nd ed. 1815.
Who is the Bridegroom? or, Nuptial Discoveries. A Novel. In Three Volumes. By Mrs. Green. London: A. K. Newman and Co., 1822.
Gretna Green Marriages; or, The Nieces. A Novel. In Three Volumes. By Mrs. Green. London: A. K. Newman and Co., 1823.
Scotch Novel Reading; or, Modern Quackery. A Novel Really Founded on Facts. In three volumes. By a Cockney. London: A. K. Newman and Co., 1824.
Parents and Wives; or, Inconsistency and Mistakes. A Novel. In three volumes. By Mrs. Green. London: A. K. Newman and Co., 1825.
Conduct literature
[Anonymous]. Mental improvement for a young lady, on her entrance into the world; addressed to a favourite niece. London: printed at the Minerva Press, for William Lane, Leadenhall-Street; and sold by Mrs. Harlow, Pall-Mall, 1793; 2nd ed. 1794; 3rd ed. 1796.
Religious
A letter to the publisher of Brothers's prophecies, by Mrs. S. Green: in which she bears testimony to the sanity of Mr. Brothers. And relates several visions, which she has had in confirmation of his mission. London: George Riebau, 1795.
Translation
Raphael; or, Peaceful Life. In Two Volumes. Translated from the German of Augustus [Heinrich Julius] Lafontaine. By Mrs. Green. . London: James Taylor and Co., 1812.
Editing
Fatherless fanny; or a young lady's first entrance into life. By the late Miss Taylor. Edited and enlarged by Mrs. Sarah Green. London: Fisher, Son & Co., 1811. Later editions in 1822, 1833,[7] 1835.[8]
^"By the Author of A Private History of the Court of England, &c"; preface signed "S.G.". Cit in "Green, Sarah. Romance Readers and Romance Writers: A Satirical Novel. In Three Vols. By the Author of A Private History of the Court of England, &c." The Women's Print History Project, 2019, title ID 93, <
https://womensprinthistoryproject.com/title/93>. Accessed 2022-09-19.
^Preface signed "Mrs. S. G****". Green, Sarah. The Reformist!!! A Serio-Comic Political Novel. In Two Volumes.The Women's Print History Project, 2019, title ID 24, <
https://womensprinthistoryproject.com/title/24>. Accessed 2022-09-19.
^Green, Sarah. Percival Ellingford: or the Reformist. A Novel. In Two Volumes. By Mrs. Green, Author of Good Men of Modern Date, Deception, Festival of St. Jago, &c. &c. Second edition.The Women's Print History Project, 2019, title ID 8856, <
https://womensprinthistoryproject.com/title/8856>. Accessed 2022-09-19.
^Fatherless fanny; or a young lady's first entrance into life. By the late Miss Taylor. Edited and enlarged by Mrs. Sarah Green. The Women's Print History Project, 2019, title ID 8347, <
https://womensprinthistoryproject.com/title/8347>. Accessed 2022-09-19.
^Fatherless fanny; or a young lady's first entrance into life. By the late Miss Taylor. Edited and enlarged by Mrs. Sarah Green. The Women's Print History Project, 2019, title ID 15514, <
https://womensprinthistoryproject.com/title/15514>. Accessed 2022-09-19.
References
Paul Baines,
‘Green, Sarah (fl. 1790–1825)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. Accessed 13 Nov 2006.
Blain, Virginia, et al., eds. "Sarah Green." The Feminist Companion to Literature in English. New Haven and London: Yale UP, 1990, pp. 457—458. (
Open access, Internet Archive)
Brown, Susan, et al. "
Sarah Green." Orlando: Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present. Ed. Susan Brown, Patricia Clements, and Isobel Grundy. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge UP, n.d. 22 Mar. 2013. Accessed 19 Sept. 2022.
Todd, Janet. "Sarah Green." A Dictionary of British and American women writers, 1660-1800. Totowa, N.J.: Rowman & Allanheld, 1985, pp. 139. (
Open access, Internet Archive)
"
Green, Sarah." The Women's Print History Project, 2019, Person ID 449. Accessed 2022-09-19.