Julia Kavanagh

Julia Kavanagh was an Irish novelist and biographer, who wrote mainly for young women. She was born in Thurles, Tipperary, Ireland, and spent her early years in France, where her father worked as a language teacher and a writer. She moved to London with her mother in 1844, after her parents separated, and began her literary career by writing essays and stories for various journals. She soon gained popularity and recognition for her novels, such as Nathalie (1850), Rachel Grey (1856), and Beatrice (1864), which often depicted the lives and struggles of French women. She also wrote biographies of women from different historical periods and countries, such as Women in France during the eighteenth century (1850), Women of Christianity (1852), French women of letters (1862), and English women of letters (1862). She was a friend and correspondent of Charlotte Brontë, who admired her work and was influenced by her in some of her novels. Kavanagh was a devout Catholic and a social reformer, who advocated for the education and emancipation of women. She travelled extensively in Europe and wrote a travelogue, A summer and winter in two Sicilies (1858). She died in Nice, France, in 1877, at the age of 53.