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At the Circulating Library

A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837–1901

A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837–1901

Author: Clarinda Atkyns

Author: Clarinda Atkyns (1797–1865)

Alternate Name(s): Knowles (maiden name)

Biography: Clarinda Atkyns was born in 1797 in Englefield Green, Surrey, the daugher of James Knowles and his wife Hannah (née Warren). Her older sister was the novelist Cecilia Gidoin Jenkins. As young women, they knew Lord Byron, Thomas Love Peacock, and the Shelleys. In fact, Peacock became enamored with the two sisters in turn, finding Clarinda "the most lovely, the most engaging, the most witty, and the most accomplished" of women. In 1834, she married clergyman John Atkyns and the couple had two daughters. Her husband served as vicar of Littlehampton and later vicar of Ombersley. At a relatively late age, Atykins turned her hand to fiction writing three silver-fork novels and one detective novel. After a twelve-month illness, she died on 28 July 1865 in Ombersley. Note: Atkyns was identified in the Routledge contract ledgers. Several sources such as Boase and Blain erroneously attribute these four novels to Anna Atkins (neé Children) (1799–1871). She is definitely not their author.

Author Tags:

References: Blain; Boase; British Census (1851, 1861); Gloucestershire Chronicle (5 August 1865); Nicholas A. Joukovsky, "Peacock in Love: Reminiscences of Cecilia Jenkins, an Unknown Victorian Novelist," Philological Quarterly (2006); Larry Schaaf, "The First Photographically Printed and Illustrated Book," PBSA 73 (1979)

Fiction Titles:

  1. The Perils of Fashion: A Novel.  3 vol.  London: Henry Colburn, 1852.
  2. The Colonel: A Novel of Fashionable Life.  3 vol.  London: Hurst and Blackett, 1853.
  3. Murder Will Out: A Story of Real Life.  1 vol.  London: Routledge, 1859.
  4. A Page from the Peerage.  2 vol.  London: Longman, 1863.