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At the Circulating Library

A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837–1901

A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837–1901

Author: Eliza Bland Norton

Author: Eliza Bland Norton (1795–1855)

Alternate Name(s): Smith (maiden name); Erskine (first married name); Norton (second married name)

Biography: Eliza Bland Norton was born in 1795 in Whitehaven, Cumberland, the daughter of Lt.-Col. Smith. In 1809, she married first Lt. Col. the Hon. Esmé Stewart Erskine, youngest son of Lord Chancellor Erskine. He lost an arm at Waterloo and died in 1817. In 1819, she married second James Norton of the East India naval service. He died in 1835. She wrote two narrative poems (1814, 1815), a play (1848), and one collection of tales The Gossip (1852). The publication of the latter led to a minor confusion and controversy with Caroline Norton. She died in 1855 in Baden-Baden.

References: Burke; Edinburgh Magazine (June 1820); Gentleman's Magazine ( November 1855)

Fiction Titles:

  1. The Gossip: A Collection of Tales.  3 vol.  London: Saunders and Otley, 1852.