Mathilde Blind: Late-Victorian Culture and the Woman of Letters by James Diedrick (review)

In Mathilde Blind: Late-Victorian Culture and the Woman of Letters, James Diedrick delves into the life of an extraordinary poet and literary critic. The biography is a pioneering work that uses periodical reviews of Mathilde Blind's literary works, as well as letters from her circle of friends to create a highly detailed account of her life. Diedrick, who has spent nearly two decades meticulously researching Blind's life since writing her entry for The Dictionary of Literary Biography, identified two main goals for this biography. First, he aimed to show that "Blind's story has a historical as well as literary significance, illustrating the complex affiliations linking radical thought, revolutionary politics, and aestheticism in the mid- to late nineteenth century" (xii). Diedrick's second goal was to demonstrate how "feminist theory and theories of cosmopolitanism" are "rooted in and linked to Victorian discourse—on aesthetics, citizenship, nationhood, imperialism, gender, and sexuality—and how Blind herself contributed to this discourse" (xii). Diedrick succeeds in accomplishing these goals through the passionate and thorough research encompassed by this 336-page biography.

Diedrick breaks up Blind's life into eight chapters according to her major writing projects and changing status within London's intellectual elite. The first chapter, "The Making of a Cosmopolitan: 1841–1867," establishes how a young Jewish woman born in Germany was ultimately able to surround herself with the greatest minds of the mid- to late nineteenth century. Blind's stepfather, Karl Blind, was a prominent German revolutionist and was closely associated with Karl Marx and democratic leaders Louis Blanc and Giuseppe Mazzini, amongst many others. Karl Blind frequently invited these impressive figures to his London home for political discussions. The well-educated young Mathilde flourished in this intellectual environment: the international conversations broadened her mind, and the illustrious connections she made greatly benefited her later professional life.

Subsequent chapters explore Blind's intellectual prowess through her successful and critically acclaimed written work. In chapter two, "Romancing Shelley and Others: 1868–1870," Diedrick chronicles Blind's first major writing endeavor, a study and biography of Percy Bysshe Shelley composed under the guidance of fellow poet and scholar Richard Garnett. Even though she received assistance, she was determined to "maintain her critical independence" during her intense study of Shelley (47). In her essay, Blind claims that Shelley was an "unacknowledged legislator" of women's rights, most notably in his poem "The Revolt of Islam," where he "imagines a degree of autonomy for Cythna that is quite distinct from the ambitious yet compromised depictions of Joan of Arc by Southey and Coleridge in their pantisocratic days" (65). Published in the Westminster Review in July 1870, the essay's immense success qualified Blind as one of the foremost experts on Shelley.

Blind's next scholarly endeavor is recounted in chapter four, "Translating Strauss, Traveling in Scotland: 1873–1874." Having established her scholarly reputation, Blind pursued a project that "placed her in a distinguished circle of fellow women writers who undertook major translation projects in the Victorian era" (105). In January 1873, Garnett contacted Blind with the opportunity to translate Strauss's The Old Faith and the New: A Confession from German into English. Working with Garnett once more, Blind translated one page at a time, staying in contact with Strauss throughout the process. In Diedrick's view, their letters "convey the scholarly curiosity, energy, and care both brought to the project; they indicate Blind's determination to ensure that the translation would increase her own literary capital" (107). Blind's translation met her goal of increasing her literary capital, as it was "welcomed by her fellow freethinkers" and scholars; however, it "deeply disturbed the orthodox" (114).

Chapter six, "Biographer, Novelist, Polemical Poet 1882–1887," chronicles Blind's last major writing project. During the period of her greatest literary output, Blind was commissioned by John H. Ingram to write the first biography of George Eliot...