| Title | 7. A Pinchbeck Goddess |
|---|---|
| Contributor | Barbara Fisher (author) |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0377.07 |
| Landing page | https://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0377/chapters/10.11647/obp.0377.07 |
| License | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ |
| Copyright | Barbara Fisher |
| Publisher | Open Book Publishers |
| Published on | 2024-09-04 |
| Long abstract | In 1893, with Lockwood and Alice’s return to England and Rudyard’s marriage and relocation to Vermont, Trix was without family on the sub-continent. Fortunately, Trix reconnected with her girlhood friend Maud Marshall, now married and publishing stories under her married name, Maud Diver. With Maud’s encouragement, Trix wrote stories and a series of dialogues as well as a second novel, A Pinchbeck Goddess, which was published in 1897 under the name “Mrs. J. M. Fleming (Alice M. Kipling).” The novel, the title of which means false or counterfeit goddess, had a complicated plot of disgrace and disguise. It received some favorable reviews, but not favorable enough to keep Trix from feeling disappointed and dissatisfied. In 1897, Jack, always bedeviled by health issues, returned with Trix to Scotland, where isolated with the unsympathetic Flemings, Trix slipped from depression into despair. |
| Page range | pp. 121–144 |
| Print length | 24 pages |
| Language | English (Original) |
Barbara Fisher graduated from Bennington College with a B.A. and received her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in English Literature from Columbia University. For many years, she taught 18th and 19th Century English Literature, mostly at Eugene Lang College, the undergraduate college of the New School University in New York City. She has also been a book reviewer for major U.S. newspapers including the The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Boston Globe, for which she wrote a book column every other Sunday for fifteen years. This is her first book as an independent scholar. She is currently working on a biography of mid-20th Century cultural and literary critic Lionel Trilling.