BARS Blog

by Belén Fernandez Crespo

Harriet Geddes (Hagley 1790-Worcestershire 1868) was the wife of William Collins—painter and Royal Academician—and mother of Wilkie Collins—novelist, playwright, and sensation writer. Harriet’s contribution to her son’s tutoring and education has been widely acknowledged by scholars: she not only encouraged Wilkie’s early reading, but she also supported his theatrical tastes, which prompted his friendship and literary partnership with Dickens; she made her collection of Anne Radcliffe’s Gothic romances available, which may have influenced his sensation novels; and she helped launch her son’s literary career by assisting him in the publication of Memoirs of the Life of William Collins, a successful biographical account edited in 1848 in two volumes by Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans. However, her own talent has been systematically silenced and rendered invisible. Her true story has never been told, for the accepted version—repeated to exhaustion by Willkie Collins’ biographers—presents her as a devoted wife and mother. In this blogpost, I not only intend to vindicate the importance of the hidden figure of Harriet Geddes,¹ silenced by patriarchy, but also to give her the recognition and visibility she deserves. Drawing from her unpublished autobiography, I will seek to understand the personality and aspirations of an intelligent, brave woman forced to live in the shadow of her husband and son.

As a talented actress, Harriet dreamt of performing at The Theatre Royal (Bath), and she would have traveled there to request a trial from the manager had she possessed the necessary funds. However, it was the influence of an Evangelical clergyman— a Mr. Marsden as he appears in her fictionalized memoirs—that thwarted Harriet’s theatrical inclinations and her desire to become an actress—one of the few paths that would have allowed her to express herself and live an independent life. Mr. Marsden and his wife “saved” Harriet from the evils of acting, for becoming an actress would have brought about certain ruin. It was demanded of Geddes to waste her potential as a talented performer and instead work as a governess—a socially acceptable occupation for a woman—to support her improvident family, even if she lacked the proper qualifications due to her limited education. When, after having worked for several families and finally managing to feel comfortable as a governess Harriet secured a position in a household where she was well paid and her work was genuinely valued, it was her husband-to-be, William Collins—a strict Evangelical who deemed it unsuitable for women to earn their livelihood—who forced his courageous, determined fiancé Harriet to retreat into dependence, take up the expected role of a married woman, and become invisible. From the domestic sphere, Harriet took different roles as a supporter and patron of her son and as a mailing intermediary between rebel, bohemian Wilkie—who resisted becoming a lawyer to pursue his dream of writing—and his strict, conservative, and religious father. Patriarchy transformed Harriet into a speaker for its discourse when she scolded Henrietta Ward² for not giving up her work as a painter to devote her life to her children; patriarchy controlled Harriet’s mind so deeply that it inhibited her from expressing³ any deep thoughts or personal asides in her published diaries (Clarke 25), which hinders us from learning about the desires and aspirations of a strong and capable woman.

Six years after the death of her husband, Harriet Geddes produced an unpublished manuscript⁴ “based on her life as an artist’s wife” 5 (Clarke 78). The manuscript was a fictionalized biographical account of her childhood and youth, and it portrays her rise from poverty to affluence, her struggle to become a valid governess, and her becoming the economic supporter of her parents and younger sisters. Harriet’s manuscript is a bildungsroman that depicts her growth from a thoughtless young girl concerned only with pleasures such as balls and parties, to a perseverant, independent, wage-earning woman.

Harriet sent her manuscript to Collins, seeking advice on how to make it publishable. She meant to express herself, to raise her voice and tell her story in her own words. The manuscript shows Geddes as a talented writer, capable of articulating her insecurities, dilemmas, and unyielding spirit. However, Collins did not find his mother’s work appropriate, so he tried to modify and improve it by instilling his own essence into it. If published, the manuscript would have been ascribed to him, for he mentioned he would sign it himself. Harriet appears to have acquiesced—yet another example of the suppression of a woman’s identity taken for granted by women themselves (Peters 298). Wilkie Collins got down to cutting and rearranging Harriet’s manuscript for some time, but he eventually seems to have abandoned the project⁶ (Peters 153): no more will be heard of Harriet’s manuscript, which will be assumed to have disappeared (Peters 298). Harriet’s autobiography remained unpublished, unsigned, and unnamed: once again she was thwarted in her inclinations, invisibilized, and silenced. Headed as “April 25th, 1853” (Peters 298), it has been cataloged as by Wilkie Collins. Today, it remains unpublished and is housed at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin.

ENDNOTES

1. I will use Harriet’s maiden name to erase her invisibility and vindicate her as an independent individual: a strong and capable woman who shines with her own light.
2. Henrietta Ward (1832-1924) was one of Wilkie Collins’ friends. She was a Victorian artist coming from a family of painters. She was known for her portrait paintings and genre scenes.
3. One piece of evidence that may suggest Harriet’s resentment toward her imposed lifestyle is her long struggle with “nerves,” which led her to convalesce with her parents, visit friends, or take the waters. According to Lycett, (Andrew Lycett, Wilkie Collins: A Life of Sensation, Random House, 2013), there is no indication that Harriet had any creative outlet, and her afflictions were not uncommon among women navigating life in a male-dominated, industrial society (30).
4. Harriet Collins, MS; cataloged under Wilkie Collins, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin, Texas.
5. Clarke, William Malpas. The Secret Life of Wilkie Collins. Rowman & Littlefield, 1991.
6. Peters, Catherine.” ’Invite No Dangerous Publicity’: Some Independent Women and Their Effect on Wilkie Collin’s Life and Writing.” Dickens Studies Annual, vol. 20, 1991, pp. 295-312.