Barbara Hofland

Mrs. Hofland. Decision: a Tale.

London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, 1824.

Biographical Sketch of Barbara Hofland

Barbara Hofland (1770-1844) was born Barbara Wreaks in Sheffield, located in the north of England. Her father, Robert Wreaks, died when she was still an infant, and she was raised by an aunt. Before he died, however, Wreaks was a manufacturer, likely contributing to the manufacturing theme in Decision. She published her first essay in 1795, and in 1796 she married a merchant by the name of T. Bradshawe Hoole. Her husband died two years later, but left Hofland with an infant son as well as a sizeable fortune. This fortune was lost when the firm in which it was invested failed; this is also a major story element in Decision.

In 1805 Hofland published a volume of poems, mostly to support herself and her son. The volume was successful, selling 2,000 copies, and allowed her to open a boarding school at Harrogate. This venture was a failure, but it did allow Hofland the time to establish herself as a fiction writer.

She published The Clergyman's Widow in 1812, and the novel went on to sell over 17,000 copies. Her novel The Daughter in-Law even gained the attention of Queen Charlotte, who accepted the dedication of the novel. Her most well known work is The Son of a Genius, written in 1816. All told, she published over sixty works throughout her lifetime.

Eventually Hofland went on to marry again, to an artist named Thomas Christopher Hofland (1777-1843). Her husband was largely unsuccessful as an artist, and this compelled Hofland to work even harder to publish more works, a situation that draws strong comparisons to the relationship between Maria and her father, Mr. Falconer, in Decision.

Judging by reviews of Decision, Hofland was a well-respected author. As stated by the Ladies' Monthly Museum in its review of Decision: "Her writings are too well known and too justly appreciated to require our commendation."

Sources:

Blain, Virginia, Clements, Patricia, and Isobel Grundy, eds. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. New Haven: Yale UP, 1990.

Stephen, Sir Leslie and Sir Sidney Lee, eds. Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. IX. Oxford: Oxford UP / London: Humphrey Milford, 1917.

-- Prepared by Alex Toews, University of Nebraska, April 2006.
© Alex Toews, 2006.