Mrs. Margaret Hungerford

Life
1855-1897 [Margaret Wolfe Hungerford; pseud. “The Duchess”]; lived at Bandon, Co. Cork, dg. of a clergyman; twice married, the second occasion in 1883; 6 children; issued 32 novels, mostly anonymous; her first was Phyllis (1877), followed by Molly Bawn (1878) an Irish love-tale which made her name as a popular novelist; also An Unsatisfactory Lover (1894), and The O’Connors of Ballynahinch (1896). ODNB DIW IF/2 SUTH OCIL [no ATT]

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Works
  • Molly Bawn (1878).
  • Her Week’s Amusement (1885).
  • A Modern Circe [3 vols.] (London: Ward & Downey 1887)
  • A Little Irish Girl (1891).
  • The O’Connors of Ballynahinch (1896).
  • Nora Creina (1903).
Short fiction
  • Folk Tales of Breffny (1913).

References
Stephen Brown, Ireland in Fiction: A Guide to Irish Novels, Tales, Romances and Folklore [Pt. I] (Dublin: Maunsel 1919), lists Molly Bawn (1878); Her Week’s Amusement (1885); A Little Irish Girl (1891); The O’Connors of Ballynahinch (1896); Nora Creina (1903); Folk Tales of Breffny (1913) IF2 adds A Modern Circe [3 vols.] (London: Ward & Downey 1887) [Mrs Dundas ... fatally attractive].

A. N. Jeffares, Anglo-Irish Literature (Macmillan 1980), cites Mrs. Hungerford, Molly Bawn.

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John Sutherland, The Longman Companion to Victorian Fiction (Harlow: Longmans 1988); Mrs. Margaret Wolfe, ‘The Duchess’, née Hamilton, b. Co. Cork, f. Canon Fitzjohn Stannus Hamilton, Ross Cathedral clergy; twice married, to Edward Argles, 1872, and Thomas Hungerford, 1882; 30 novels; Molly Bawn (1878), a love tale with a light-headed Irish colleen; Irish tales incl. Her Week’s Amusement (1885); A Little Irish Girl (1891); Nor Wife Nor Maid (1892); The Red House Mystery (1893); The Hoyden (1894); insubstantial and frothy. Lady Verner’s Flight (1893) deals with the sufferings of an abused wife. Died of typhoid. BL 48.

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Elaine Showalter, A Literature of their Own (1984), lists her as a novelist, pseud. The Duchess; b. Co. Cork, dg. of Church of England clergyman; ed. at school; married twice, second time in 1883; had 6 children; published 32 novels, usually anonymously; first novel, Phyllis (1877); best known novel, Molly Bawn (1875) [sic err?].

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Catalogues
Belfast Public Library
holds Little Irish Girl (1891); O’Connors of Ballinahinch (1896).

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Booksellers
Richard Beaton (Lewes, S. Sussex), lists

A Modern Circe [1887] (London, Ward & Downey 1888)
Green Pleasure and Grey Grief [1886] (London, Smith, Elder & Co. 1887)
Nora Creina [1893; new edn.] (London, Chatto & Windus 1898)

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Lady Branksmere [1886] (London, Smith, Elder & Co. 1892)
A Life's Remorse [1890; 2nd. edn.; in 1 vol.] ( London, F. V. White & Co. 1890)
Mrs Geoffrey [1881; copyright edn.] ( Leipzig, Tauchnitz 1881)
Phyllis [q.d.; rep. edn.] ( London, Herbert Jenkins 1918)
Molly Bawn (1878)

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also ...  

Time: A Monthly Miscellany of Interesting and Amusing Literature, Vols. VII, VIII - contains Portia (Hungerford), and Haunted Hearts (J. Palgrave Simpson).

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