Elizabeth Stuart Phelps (1844-1911) was the author of fifty-seven volumes of fiction, poetry and essays. Phelps gained recognition from prominent literary figures such as Thomas Wentworth Higginson and John Greenleaf Whittier, when "The Tenth of January," a story she wrote about the death of scores of girls in a mill fire in Lawrence, MA in 1859, appeared in The Atlantic Monthly. Personal experience and strong belief also led her to write about the problems and treatment of women. She gained popularity through the publication of The Gates Ajar (1868), a novel offering a comforting view of the afterlife to women who had lost loved ones in the Civil War. Much of her writing was concerned with social issues and women's rights. Given these concerns, it may seem strange that among her numerous publications, Phelps wrote several poems and three short stories on Arthurian themes. However, when one considers the manner of her retelling of the Arthurian tales, particularly in her fiction, they seem of a piece with her other work. Her approach in her fiction is to translate the inhabitants of medieval Camelot into a nineteenth-century setting. Her Lady of Shalott (in "The Lady of Shalott") is a sickly seventeen-year-old girl living in a slum and supported by her sister who earns a poverty wage doing piece-work. When the mirror through which she views the world is broken by street urchins throwing rocks, she succumbs to her harsh environment and dies. The story is a deromanticization of one of the most romantic characters of nineteenth-century literature. Her Galahad (in "The Christmas of Sir Galahad") is a man who, despite his love for another woman, remains faithful to his wife

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Elizabeth Stuart Phelps (1844-1911) was the author of fifty-seven volumes of fiction, poetry and essays. Phelps gained recognition from prominent literary figures such as Thomas Wentworth Higginson and John Greenleaf Whittier, when "The Tenth of January," a story she wrote about the death of scores of girls in a mill fire in Lawrence, MA in 1859, appeared in The Atlantic Monthly. Personal experience and strong belief also led her to write about the problems and treatment of women. She gained popularity through the publication of The Gates Ajar (1868), a novel offering a comforting view of the afterlife to women who had lost loved ones in the Civil War. Much of her writing was concerned with social issues and women's rights. Given these concerns, it may seem strange that among her numerous publications, Phelps wrote several poems and three short stories on Arthurian themes. However, when one considers the manner of her retelling of the Arthurian tales, particularly in her fiction, they seem of a piece with her other work. Her approach in her fiction is to translate the inhabitants of medieval Camelot into a nineteenth-century setting. Her Lady of Shalott (in "The Lady of Shalott") is a sickly seventeen-year-old girl living in a slum and supported by her sister who earns a poverty wage doing piece-work. When the mirror through which she views the world is broken by street urchins throwing rocks, she succumbs to her harsh environment and dies. The story is a deromanticization of one of the most romantic characters of nineteenth-century literature. Her Galahad (in "The Christmas of Sir Galahad") is a man who, despite his love for another woman, remains faithful to his wife though she is "crazy" and "takes opium" and though she only occasionally returns to his home. Not until after her death does he marry, on Christmas Day, the woman he loves. And her Arthur, Guenever, and Launcelot (in "The True Story of Guenever") are a carpenter, his wife, and a boarder they take in; and her story about their relationship is an exploration of the position of a woman in marriage in the nineteenth century. The story is distinctive because of the pointed way in which it reacts against Tennyson's image of Guinevere groveling on the convent floor. Phelps makes it clear that the story is told from a woman's perspective and that is why it is "the true story of Guenever." Phelps was certainly aware of and capable of presenting these characters in their traditional settings. She does just that in her three Arthurian poems, "The Terrible Test," "Elaine and Elaine," and "Guinevere," all of which were reprinted in her collection Songs of the Silent World (1891). But even in these poems there is a twist to the received story that suggests the originality with which Phelps will construct her stories. "The Terrible Test" is a poem about Galahad "whose strength was the strength of ten" and who is recognized as "the eidolon of holiness" because he is "pure in deed, and word, and thought." But Phelps closes her poem with the comment that it is "Enough, to know that once the clay / Hath worn the features of God," that is, in the person of Christ. The implication is that one perfect model is all that is needed. Galahad's "test" is terrible not because of its difficulty but because it has cost him his humanity. The poem "Elaine and Elaine" deals, despite its title, only with one Elaine, the Lily Maid who dies for love of Lancelot. Like its title the poem is somewhat cryptic. In fact, it seems to argue paradoxically for silence in the face of the tragedy. Phelps's third Arthurian poem, "Guinevere," which was originally published with the title "Afterward," looks forward to her story about Arthur's queen. Both are concerned with Guinevere in the nunnery and with the guilt ascribed to her. While the story is more radical in its reinterpretation of Guinevere's betrayal of Arthur and refuses to accept her groveling before a sternly moral king, the poem is also unwilling to accept the Tennysonian view of the queen's guilt. In the "Guinevere" poem, she also grovels, but here it happens not because she is overwhelmed by her guilt but because she falls from weakness caused by her striving to repress her irrepressible nature.

Biography written by: Alan Lupack
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