Netta Syrett was an English writer of the late Victorian period whose novels featured New Woman

New Woman

The New Woman was a feminist ideal that emerged in the late 19th century. The New Woman pushed the limits set by male-dominated society, especially as modeled in the plays of Norwegian Henrik Ibsen . "The New Woman sprang fully armed from Ibsen's brain," according to a joke by Max Beerbohm...

 protagonists. Her novel Portrait of a Rebel was adapted into the 1936 film A Woman Rebels

A Woman Rebels

A Woman Rebels is a 1936 RKO film adapted from the novel Portrait of a Rebel by Netta Syrett and starring Katharine Hepburn as Pamela Thistlewaite, who rebels against the social mores of Victorian England...

.

Early life and education

Netta Syrett was born Janet Syrett on March 17, 1865 in Landsgate, Kent. She was one of five daughters born to silk merchant Ernest Syrett and the niece of writer Grant Allen

Grant Allen

Charles Grant Blairfindie Allen was a science writer, author and novelist, and a successful upholder of the theory of evolution.-Biography:...

. First educated at home by their mother and a German governess, Syrett left home at age 11 to attend North London Collegiate School

North London Collegiate School

North London Collegiate School is an independent day school for girls founded in 1850 in Camden Town, and now in the London Borough of Harrow.The Good Schools Guide called the school an "Academically stunning outer London school in a glorious setting which, in 2003, demonstrated its refusal to rest...

. She continued her education at Cambridge Training College

Hughes Hall, Cambridge

Hughes Hall, is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. It is often informally called Hughes, and is the oldest of the four Cambridge colleges which admit only mature students...

 where she completed the three years' coursework necessary for a full teaching certificate in one year.

Career

Syrett taught for two years at a school in Swansea

Swansea

Swansea is a coastal city and county in Wales. Swansea is in the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan. Situated on the sandy South West Wales coast, the county area includes the Gower Peninsula and the Lliw uplands...

 before accepting a post at the London Polytechnic School for Girls. Through her friend and coworker Mabel Beardsley, Netta met Aubrey Beardsley

Aubrey Beardsley

Aubrey Vincent Beardsley was an English illustrator and author. His drawings, done in black ink and influenced by the style of Japanese woodcuts, emphasized the grotesque, the decadent, and the erotic. He was a leading figure in the Aesthetic movement which also included Oscar Wilde and James A....

, Mabel's brother, and through him she was introduced to Henry Harland

Henry Harland

Henry Harland was an American novelist and editor.Harland was born in New York City and attended City College but pretended to be Russian-born. His literary career falls into two distinct sections...

 and included in his circle of friends. Harland published three of her short stories in the Yellow Book

Yellow Book

The Yellow Book, published in London from 1894 to 1897 by Elkin Mathews and John Lane, later by John Lane alone, and edited by the American Henry Harland, was a quarterly literary periodical that lent its name to the "Yellow" 1890s....

.

Syrett's first novel, Nobody's Fault (1896), was published by The Bodley Head

The Bodley Head

The Bodley Head is an English publishing house, founded in 1887 and existing as an independent entity until the 1970s. The name has been used as an imprint of Random House Children's Books since 1987...

 in their Keynote series. Her writing and teaching careers coincided until 1902, when her play The Finding of Nancy received negative attention after Clement Scott, writing for the Daily Telegraph (9 May 1902), insinuated that the play was thinly disguised autobiography

Autobiography

An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...

. Syrett was asked to resign her teaching position after a student's mother read Scott's review. By that time, novel writing had become for her "a sure thing" and Syrett continued to turn out a novel per year until retiring in 1939.

Novels

• Nobody's Fault (1896)
• The Tree of Life (1897)
• Rosanne (1902)
• The Day's Journey (1905)
• The Child of Promise (1907)
• Anne Page (1908)
• A Castle of Dreams (1909)
• Olivia L. Carew (1910)
• Drender's Daughter (1911)
• Three Women (1912)
• The Endless Journey (1912)
• Stories from Mediaeval Romance (1913)
• Barbara of the Thorn (1913)
• The Jam Queen (1914)
• The Victorians (1915; republished as Rose Cottingham)
• Rose Cottingham Married (1916)
• Troublers of the Peace (1917)

• The Wife of a Hero (1918)
• The God of Chance (1920)
• As the Stars Come Out (1920?)
• Cupid and Mr. Pepys (1923)
• The House in Garden Square (1924)
• The Shuttles of Eternity (1928)
• Portrait of a Rebel (1930)
• The Path to the Sun (1931)
• Strange Marriage (1931)
• Moon Out of the Sky (1932)
• Who was Florriemay? (1932)
• The House That Was (1933)
• The Farm on the Downs (1936)
• Angel Unawares (1936)
• Fulfilment (1938)
• ...As Dreams Are Made On (1939)
• Gemini (1940)

Short stories

• "Sylvia" (Macmillan's, 1891)
• "Thy Heart's Desire" (Yellow Book
  Yellow Book
  The Yellow Book, published in London from 1894 to 1897 by Elkin Mathews and John Lane, later by John Lane alone, and edited by the American Henry Harland, was a quarterly literary periodical that lent its name to the "Yellow" 1890s....
  
  , July 1894)
• "A Correspondence" (Yellow Book, October 1895)
• "Her Wedding Day" (Quarto, 1896)
• "Fairy-Gold" (Temple Bar, 1896)
• "Far Above Rubies" (Yellow Book, January 1897)
• "Chiffon" (Pall Mall, 1900)
• "A Revelation in Arcadia" (Harper's
  Harper's Magazine
  Harper's Magazine is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts, with a generally left-wing perspective. It is the second-oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. . The current editor is Ellen Rosenbush, who replaced Roger Hodge in January 2010...
  
  , August 1902)
• "Poor Little Mrs. Villiers" (Venture, 1903)
• "An Idealist" (Harper's, May 1903)
• "A Common Occurrence" (Harper's, February 1904)
• "Madame de Meline" (Acorn, October 1905)

Children's books

• The Garden of Delight: Fairy Tales (1898)
• The Magic City and Other Fairy Tales (1903)
• Six Fairy Plays for Children (1904)
• The Dream Garden (1905)
• The Day's Journey (1906)
• The Castle of Four Towers (1908)
• The Vanishing Princess (1910)

• The Old Miracle Plays of England (1911)
• Godmother's Garden (1918)
• Robin Goodfellow and Other Fairy Plays for Children (1918)
• Toby and the Odd Beasts (1921)
• The Fairy Doll (1922)
• Tinkelly Winkle (1923)
• Rachel and the Seven Wonders (1923)

Other works

• The story of Saint Catherine of Siena (1910)
• Sketches of European History (1931)
• The Sheltering Tree (autobiography, 1939)

External links