FRANCES ELLEN COLENSO,

1849-1887

Her Life and Times in Relation to the

Victorian Stereotype of the

Middle-Class English Woman

Patricia Lynne Merrett

Frances Ellen (Fanny) Colenso was the second daughter, and second child, of Bishop John William and Sarah Frances Colenso. Her life was cut short by tuberculosis at the age of 37 in 1887, but her talents marked her out as a woman of literary and historical importance. Her achievements are used in this book, originally a thesis awarded a masters degree in 1980 by the University of Cape Town, to compare Fanny with other women writers of her century and assess her life in terms of the stereotype of the middle-class Victorian woman. Fanny had artistic and literary ambitions. She and her elder sister Harriette were active advocates of their father’s unconventional theological and political beliefs and actions. Fanny also involved herself in the controversy surrounding Colonel Anthony Durnford’s role at the battle of Isandlwana in 1879. She had earlier written a novel under the pseudonym Atherton Wylde entitled My Chief and I about Durnford’s conduct at the engagement with the Hlubi at Bushman’s River Pass in 1873; and then published two volumes of a history of the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879 entitled the Ruin of Zululand. A third volume was unfinished at her death. These activities, generally regarded as the realm of men, placed her outside the narrow confines of Victorian womanhood, especially in a colonial setting. Fanny maintained her activism until very shortly before her premature death. In England during her final year, she became more radical in outlook while maintaining the Colenso doctrine that patriotic duty to country and empire required critical self-examination and adherence to truth. Not only was she a significant figure in nineteenth-century Natal, but one who has relevance today.

Book details

Download the entire book ( 1.7 Megabyte PDF file) free of charge here

.