L.E.L

Miller, Lucasta

£11.99

On 15th October 1838, the body of a 36-year-old woman was found in Cape Coast Castle, West Africa, a bottle of Prussic acid in her hand. She was one of the most famous English poets of her day: Letitia Elizabeth Landon, known by her initials ‘L.E.L’. What was she doing in Africa? Was her death an accident, as the inquest claimed? Or had she committed suicide, or even been murdered? A famous poet, a mysterious death and a story stranger than fiction – this is the lost life and mysterious death of the ‘Female Byron’. To her contemporaries, she was an icon, admired by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Heinrich Heine, the young Brontë sisters and Edgar Allan Poe. However, she was also a woman with secrets, the mother of three illegitimate children whose existence was subsequently wiped from the record. After her death, she became the subject of a cover-up which is only now unravelling.

Peek Inside

Out of stock

Publish Date: 03/12/2020

Description

A famous poet, a mysterious death and a story stranger than fiction. – this is the lost life and mytserious death of the ‘Female Byron’

On 15 October 1838, the body of a thirty-six-year-old woman was found in Cape Coast Castle, West Africa, a bottle of prussic acid in her hand. She was one of the most famous English poets of her day: Letitia Elizabeth Landon, known by her initials ‘L.E.L.’

What was she doing in Africa? Was her death an accident? Had she committed suicide, or even been murdered?

To her contemporaries, she was an icon, hailed as the ‘female Byron’. However, she was also a woman with secrets, the mother of three illegitimate children whose existence was subsequently wiped from the record. After her death, she became the subject of a cover-up which this book unravels, excavating with it a whole lost literary culture.

FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE BRONTE MYTH

Additional information

Weight 500 g
Dimensions 198 × 129 × 35 mm
Author

Publisher

Imprint

Cover

Paperback

Pages

xii, 401 , 12 unnumbered of plates

Language

English

Edition
Dewey

821.7 (edition:23)

Readership

General – Trade / Code: K