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| rosa_praed [2020/12/29 11:20] – judith | rosa_praed [2023/09/06 17:11] – judith |
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| ====== Rosa Caroline Praed, nee M-P ====== | ====== Rosa Caroline Praed, nee M-P ====== |
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| Rosa (or Rosie as she was called by her family) as a young adult.((https://static1.squarespace.com/static/58854084197aea49bd548fc2/t/5966d2533e00bed2dc69bcb5/1499910753362/?format=500w)) {{:young_rosa_cropped.jpg?200|}}\\ | Rosa (or Rosie as she was called by her family) as a young adult.{{:young_rosa_cropped.jpg?200|}}\\ |
| Rosa in 1888.((Provenance: Jill Fleming)) {{:rosa_1888.jpg?200|}}\\ | Rosa in 1888.((Provenance: Jill Fleming)) {{:rosa_1888.jpg?200|}}\\ |
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| The State Library of NSW has this portrait of Rosa Praed painted by Emily Praed in 1884; it may be a copy of one painted by J.M. Jopling that year. In 2019, it is in the State Library's portrait gallery on open access: {{:c34025_0001_c_rosaportrait_in_ml.jpg?300|}}\\ | The State Library of NSW has this portrait of Rosa Praed painted by Emily Praed in 1884; it may be a copy of one painted by J.M. Jopling that year. At time of writing (2023), it is in the Library's portrait gallery on open access: {{:c34025_0001_c_rosaportrait_in_ml.jpg?300|}}\\ |
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| The themes of Rosa's writings were confronting for her contemporaries: 'the young colonial woman's encounter with metropolitan political and literary culture, the 'tragedies of the sexes', the horrors of frontier conflict, and the exploration of psychic and spiritual life.'((Kay Ferres, ‘”I must dree my weird”: A colonial Correspondence’, Hecate, 31:2, 2005, p.75)) Especially in the 1890s, Rosa was accused of promoting immorality through her more realistic novels, and at least one play, featuring domestic conflict and the plight of women, brought up to be 'innocent' (Rosa would say 'ignorant') and thrust into marriages they had little hope of escaping. These accusations would have been even more strident if her publishers hadn't insisted on bowdlerising her work. Patricia Clarke points out that Australian critics were particularly critical of Rosa's writings as too risque.((Patricia Clarke, 'Rosa Praed's Irish Connections', //The Australian Journal of Irish Studies//, vol. 1, 2001, p.121.))\\ | Rosa was a controversial writer. Part of the controversy she attracts today is around her depiction of the impact of indigenous dispossession. ((McKay, Belinda. 'A Lovely Land ... by Shadows Dark Untainted'?: Whiteness and Early Queensland Women's Writing [online]. In: Moreton-Robinson, Aileen (Editor). Whitening Race: Essays in Social and Cultural Criticism. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press, 2004: 148-163. Availability: <https://search-informit-com-au.ezproxy.sl.nsw.gov.au/documentSummary;dn=413912230742820;res=IELIND> ISBN: 0855754656; Jennifer Rutherford, 'Melancholy Secrets: Rosa Praed’s Encrypted Father', Double Dialogues, no. 8, summer 2007-06. Both accessed September 2018; Patrica Grimshaw and Julie Evans, 'Colonial women on intercultural frontiers: Rosa Campbell Praed, Mary Bundock and Katie Langloh Parker', //Australian Historical Studies//, 27:106, April 1996.pp.79-96.)) For an insightful analysis of the centrality of the discourse around 'race and breeding' in Rosa's novels, see [[https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/JASAL/article/view/9732example.com|Len Platt, 'Altogether better-bred looking': Race and Romance in the Australian Novels of Rosa Praed, Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature, vol.8, 2008]]. Some of the attitudes Platt identifies relate to a later period in Rosa's life, but others can be seen in her father as well. It also is consistent with the concern of Rosa's nephew and step-cousin to establish royal descent.\\ |
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| | Rosa's writings were also confronting for her contemporaries, notably: 'the young colonial woman's encounter with metropolitan political and literary culture, the 'tragedies of the sexes', the horrors of frontier conflict, and the exploration of psychic and spiritual life.'((Kay Ferres, ‘”I must dree my weird”: A colonial Correspondence’, Hecate, 31:2, 2005, p.75)) Especially in the 1890s, Rosa was accused of promoting immorality through her more realistic novels, and at least one play, featuring domestic conflict and the plight of women, brought up to be 'innocent' (Rosa would say 'ignorant') and thrust into marriages they had little hope of escaping. These accusations would have been even more strident if her publishers hadn't insisted on bowdlerising her work. Patricia Clarke points out that Australian critics were particularly critical of Rosa's writings as too risque.((Patricia Clarke, 'Rosa Praed's Irish Connections', //The Australian Journal of Irish Studies//, vol. 1, 2001, p.121.))\\ |
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| Given Rosa's notoriety, especially in this era when any publicity threatened a woman's status as a 'lady' and her entire family's claims to gentility, it is noteworthy that she always had her family's support, including that of her conservative father who put so much effort into reclaiming his family's gentry status. In 1880, for example, when TLM-P planned to visited 'home', England, an important aim was to see Rosie.((M-P family papers, NLA MS 7801, special set 19, folder 2, 19/13.)) A number of her books now in public libraries or offered for sale have affectionate inscriptions in them indicating they were gifts from Rosa to her family.((//Moloch// inscribed T.L. Murray Prior from his daughter The Author'; //Nadine// T. de M. Murray Prior From his sister The Author Nov. 16th [18]82; //Policy and Passion//To TL Murray Prior from his daughter The Author, April 7th [18]81; //The Scourge Stick// T. de M. Murray Prior From his sister RM Praed, March 4th [18]98; //Madame Izan//inscribed Rosy[?] Murray-Prior from T. de M. Murray Prior - all in list of Rosa Praed books with T.A. and M.T. M-P.)) One of the last of her books acquired by her father was a special printing of only 230 copies: TLM-P received his copy on 13 March 1890. The book was a loving tribute to the Thames, called //The Grey River//, and written with Rosa by her friend and collaborator Justin McCarthy, with illustrations by Mortimer Menpes.((Provenance: J.Godden.)) The support she received extended to her wider family - she inscribed on her book //The Luck of the Leura//, 'To Dr. Lightoller Gratefully acknowledging "The Doctor's Yarn" RM Praed.'((list of Rosa Pread books with T.A. and M.T. M-P.))\\ | Given Rosa's notoriety, especially in this era when any publicity threatened a woman's status as a 'lady' and her entire family's claims to gentility, it is noteworthy that she always had her family's support, including that of her conservative father who put so much effort into reclaiming his family's gentry status. In 1880, for example, when TLM-P planned to visited 'home', England, an important aim was to see Rosie.((M-P family papers, NLA MS 7801, special set 19, folder 2, 19/13.)) A number of her books now in public libraries or offered for sale have affectionate inscriptions in them indicating they were gifts from Rosa to her family.((//Moloch// inscribed T.L. Murray Prior from his daughter The Author'; //Nadine// T. de M. Murray Prior From his sister The Author Nov. 16th [18]82; //Policy and Passion//To TL Murray Prior from his daughter The Author, April 7th [18]81; //The Scourge Stick// T. de M. Murray Prior From his sister RM Praed, March 4th [18]98; //Madame Izan//inscribed Rosy[?] Murray-Prior from T. de M. Murray Prior - all in list of Rosa Praed books with T.A. and M.T. M-P.)) One of the last of her books acquired by her father was a special printing of only 230 copies: TLM-P received his copy on 13 March 1890. The book was a loving tribute to the Thames, called //The Grey River//, and written with Rosa by her friend and collaborator Justin McCarthy, with illustrations by Mortimer Menpes.((Provenance: J.Godden.)) The support she received extended to her wider family - she inscribed on her book //The Luck of the Leura//, 'To Dr. Lightoller Gratefully acknowledging "The Doctor's Yarn" RM Praed.'((list of Rosa Pread books with T.A. and M.T. M-P.))\\ |
| {{:campbell_praed_prob.jpg?200|}} | {{:campbell_praed_prob.jpg?200|}} |
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| Rosa and Campbell Praed illustrate the popular saying about marrying in haste and repenting in leisure. They had four children, after which they they lived together, but considered the marriage over. Nevertheless, Praed encouraged and supported Rosa with her career as a writer. She only left him in c.1899-1900, a year before his death, to live with spiritualist Nancy Harward. Rosa believed she and Nancy were re-incarnated 'twin souls', destined to be together in succeeding lives: a more sceptical modern view is that Nancy's memories of 'past lives' derived from schizophrenia. Despite her spiritualist belief, and perhaps influenced by Justin McCarthy, in 1891 Rosa formally converted to Catholicism. She later changed her mind. Before her death in 1935 she drew up a codicil to her will asking to be buried with Protestant rites in All Souls Kensal Green Cemetery, London, sharing the grave of her companion for so many years, Nancy Harward.((Roderick, //In Mortal Bondage//, pp.202-03; Patricia Clarke, 'Rosa Praed's Irish Connections', //The Australian Journal of Irish Studies//, vol. 1, 2001, p.122.)) | Rosa and Campbell Praed illustrate the popular saying about marrying in haste and repenting in leisure. They had four children, after which they they lived together, but considered the marriage over. Nevertheless, Praed encouraged and supported Rosa with her career as a writer. She only left him in c.1899-1900, a year before his death, to live with spiritualist Nancy Harward. Rosa believed she and Nancy were re-incarnated 'twin souls', destined to be together in succeeding lives: a more sceptical modern view is that Nancy's memories of 'past lives' derived from schizophrenia. Despite her spiritualist belief, and perhaps influenced by Justin McCarthy, in 1891 Rosa formally converted to Catholicism. She later changed her mind. Before her death in 1935 she drew up a codicil to her will asking to be buried with Protestant rites in All Souls Kensal Green Cemetery, London, sharing the grave of her companion for so many years, Nancy Harward.((Roderick, //In Mortal Bondage//, pp.202-03; Patricia Clarke, 'Rosa Praed's Irish Connections', //The Australian Journal of Irish Studies//, vol. 1, 2001, p.122.)) \\ |
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| ===== Rosa and Campbell Praed's children ===== | For more photographs of Rosa and her family, see the website of the State Library of Queensland [[https://onesearch.slq.qld.gov.au/discovery/search?query=any,contains,Rosa%20Praed&tab=All&search_scope=Everything&vid=61SLQ_INST:SLQ&lang=en&offset=0example.com|search for Rosa Praed]] |
| See next generation. | |
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