Evelyn Everett-Green


Evelyn Ward Everett-Green was an English novelist who started with improving, pious stories for children, moved on to historical fiction for older girls, and then turned to adult romantic fiction. She wrote about 350 books, more than 200 of them under her own name, and others using the pseudonyms H. F. E., Cecil Adair, E. Ward and Evelyn Dare.

Early life and work

Evelyn was born at 7 Upper Gower Street, London. Her mother was the historian, Mary Anne Everett Green and her father, George Pycock Green, a portrait and landscape painter. The family were Methodists. She was the second of the family's three surviving daughters and had one older brother. She was baptised at Great Queen Street Wesleyan Methodist Chapel on 22 February 1857 as Eveline, but changed her name to Evelyn in later life. Like the rest of her family, she added Everett to her surname in honour of George Green's friend the Wesleyan historian James Everett. From her earliest childhood, she invented stories to tell to her sisters. While still at school she wrote a historical tale about Lady Jane Grey.
Evelyn was educated at home until the age of 12, then attended Gower Street Preparatory School, before having a year at Bedford College, London on a Reid scholarship, during which she wrote Tom's Tempest Victory, her first novel. She continued to write while studying at the London Academy of Music. She also worked as a nurse in a London hospital for two years. Her brother's death in 1876 ended plans to go to India with him, and so she occupied herself with good works, including Sunday School teaching and nursing, and later hospital nursing.

Writing career

In 1880 Tom Tempest's Victory became her first published work, under the pseudonym H. F. E. Though it was soon followed by other works, she found writing at home difficult and town winters did not suit her health. In 1881 she was still living in Gower Street with her family, but in 1883 she moved outside London with Catherine Mainwaring Sladen, and in the 1890s and early 1900s they had homes in Albury, Surrey. At the time of the 1891 England Census, however, she and Catherine were currently visiting her family at Gower Street.
During her time in Albury, Everett-Green wrote numerous historical novels and somewhat fewer moral tales for the Religious Tract Society. Her novel about Joan of Arc, Called of Her Country, later re-published as A Heroine of France, presents Joan as a feminine "Angelic Maid" in white armour, whose inspiring adventures were undertaken in a dutiful spirit. Many of her works have been dismissed by critics as apologies for an oppressive order. The girls' historical romance genre is viewed by such critics as one that validates "traditional", restrictive, domestic-oriented versions of femininity by demonstrating that they had long-established historical precedents.
Much of Everett-Green's fiction and non-fiction was intended for girls, but she also wrote boys' adventure stories, such as A Gordon Highlander. Many of her books followed the values and themes learned during her Methodist upbringing. These are most prominent in her books targeting children in general. She would soon turned to novels for slightly older girls, the genre she is best remembered for. They generally followed the development of a household from childhood to adulthood. Careers for women would be mentioned without disapproval, but the endings would invariably feature marriage for the female heroines. Contemporary critics, such as one from the Chicago Daily Tribune, said the works had been written with "obvious good intention," but that the "day of the weepy, fainting, blue-eyed... heroine has vanished. Between 1890 and 1909 she wrote about 50 historical tales before moving abroad to Madeira.
Thereafter she wrote romantic novels for adults, often using the pseudonym Cecil Adair. According to a modern critic, "Family sagas or romances with a historical adventure setting were her speciality." Contemporary readers enjoyed these for their chaste sensationalism, and they had considerable success. She occasionally collaborated with fellow authors Louisa Bedford and Emma and Beatrice Marshall.
Evelyn's works were some of the most popular of her generation. She was one of the bestselling authors on the lists of her publisher, Stanley Paul. However, while popular enough to bring in adequate income, they lack real distinction and are now generally read for the background light they shed on social backgrounds.

Later life and death

At the time of the 1911 census, Everett-Green, along with several servants, is recorded as still living at Albury with Catherine, as "joint heads" of the household. In that same year, however, Evelyn and Catherine moved abroad and eventually settled in Quinta Pico de São João, Madeira. However, during the First World War they both lived at Battramsley near Lymington, Hampshire. She and Catherine remained there, financially independent and unmarried. Dominic James has suggested that their partnership may have been a romantic one, in line with the same-sex relationship Everett-Green outlined in Fast friends; or, David and Jonathan, which was published under a pseudonym.
Evelyn would return to England each year to visit her sister Gertrude and conduct business with her publishers. She became an active member of the Anglican community in Madeira and was buried in the British Cemetery. There is a memorial plaque on the interior south wall of Holy Trinity Church, Funchal. She left a fortune of £5,657. 9s 3d, with the classical scholar A. S. F. Gow administrating her will.

Later reception

An extract from The Mistress of Lydgate Priory : "For a time I was afraid of her, with that fear that is not unwholesome in the young and has a fascination of its own. I liked to see her come into my room, and was sorry when she left. I liked to watch her from my window as she paced in her stately way to and fro upon the terrace.... My grandmother was herself a reserved and silent woman; moreover, she was imbued with a sound and practical common sense that I have never seen equalled, and which gave her a power and discernment rarely to be met with. Every one came to her for advice, as it seemed to me; and seldom did they go away without having received just such counsel as they most needed. The confidence she inspired was something marvellous, as was the deep and true veneration with which all regarded her."
The figure represented in this novel extract exemplifies the recurring theme of a stern and authoritative matriarch seen in the eyes of an adoring and respectful young woman. This theme has led to Everett-Green being accused by critics of apologizing for an oppressive order. Moreover, her status as a writer for the juvenile female market have led to her works being lumped together as conservative and reactionary by critics such as Kimberley Reynolds. This reading of her works became problematic in the 20th century. The idea that girl's literature was meant to enforce traditional forms of femininity comes from more modern commentators such as E. J. Salmon. This has led to the perception that all literature of this kind was reactionary and conservative.
Hillary Skelding has argued that Everett-Green's historical works maintain a high degree of historical accuracy, due to her mother's background as a historian and other female historians of the era. Some of her narratives focus on the unexceptional, everyday women of history who often acknowledge such domestic authority. She depicts in her fictional mothers and wives greater shrewdness and cleverness than her male counterparts did. Conversely, Kimberley Reynolds has noted that some such characters are powerful only within the domestic sphere and do not change the conventional patriarchal order. In effect, she only offers the illusion of female empowerment by limiting it to the domestic sphere.

Selected works