Abstract
On the surface, Harriet Martineau's life (1802-76) offers a radical challenge to the stereotype of the Victorian woman writer as a subjective, emotive novelist or poet, a Lady of Shalott weaving her web of words in isolation from the larger concerns of the masculine world. In a career that spanned fifty-five years, Martineau produced thirty-five books and scores of periodical essays. Well respected, earning her living by her pen, she moved freely and independently between London literary circles and global travels. Martineau first achieved wide recognition with the multivolume Illustrations of Political Economy (1832-34), which employed fictional story-telling to educate the general public in the principles of political economists like Malthus, Ricardo, and Bentham. The writing of this intellectual polymath ranged easily from economics to sociology, fiction, travel, history, and philosophy. Throughout her career, Martineau also published widely on feminist issues: from the education of women to the Contagious Diseases Acts.l
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