[anon.]. A Tale of the Times

London:  T. Longman and O. Rees, 1799; 2nd ed., 1799.

 

Biographical Sketch of Jane West

Jane West (1758-1852)

Jane West was born in London on April 30, 1758. At the age of 11, she moved with her parents, John and Jane Iliffe, to Desborough in Northamptonshire. She was self educated and began writing at age 13, mostly poetry early on. In 1783, she married Thomas West (d. 1823) and had three children, all boys: Thomas (b. 1783), John (b. 1787), and Edward (b. 1794) and moved to Little Bowden where she spent most of the rest of her life.

Though little is known about her social status, she seems to have lived well enough off, as the sole heir of her father's estate. She was considered to be a gentlewoman, and a role model for others in her duties as wife, mother and daughter. She wrote through most of her life, though she penned her last novel at age 69. She lived out the end of her life mostly in isolation. She died on March 25, 1852 at the age of 94, outliving her husband and all three boys.

West's writings were generally considered to be very political. Most of them focus on what she believes to be the role of women in society. Her first two books, The Advantages of Education and A Gossip's Tale, were published under the pseudonym Prudentia Homespun. The first, published in 1793, concerned such issues as women choosing who they marry carefully, very similar to A Tale of the Times. Her second novel was more focused on a woman's place in the household and domestic virtue. A Tale of the Times, published in 1799, was her third novel. This novel was also considered very much anti-Jacobian. Her novels were acknowledged for their conservativism by such contemporary women writers as Mary Wollstonecraft and Jane Austen.

West went on to publish several more works, including fiction, essays, and letters, but her first three novels were her most popular. Her poetry, which also had some success, was less political than her other works. Her first book of poetry, Miscellaneous Poems, was published in 1780. Her first work published under her real name was also a book of poetry, Miscellaneous Poems and a Tragedy, published in 1791. Most of her dramatic works and essays were not very popular and were soon forgotten.

Works Cited:

Virginia Blain, Patricia Clements & Isabel Grundy, eds., The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. New Haven: Yale UP, 1990.
Sir Leslie Stephen & Sir Sydney Lee, eds., The Dictionary of National Biography, vol. XX. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1937-1938.

-- Prepared by Rebecca Mousel, University of Nebraska, April 2006.
© Rebecca Mousel, 2006.