Name Bessie Marchant | Role Writer | |
Died 1941, Charlbury, United Kingdom Books A Countess From Canada, The Adventurous Seven: T, A Canadian Farm Mys, The Youngest Sister, The Adventurous Seven | ||
Bessie Marchant (1862–1941) was a prolific English writer of adventure novels featuring young female heroines.
Marchant was born in Kent, and despite never leaving England herself, she wrote over 150 novels set in locations around the world. She wrote in the style of the Victorian adventure novel (even being called "the girls' Henty"), but challenged established gender roles by putting strong female characters in what was seen as a boys' genre.
Early publications of Bessie Marchant novels typically have no dust jacket, but have an illustrative image printed directly on the cover and spine. This is especially true of those published by Blackie and by Collins. See the image below showing the cover for the novel Juliette the Mail Carrier, as published by Collins Clear Type Press.
Novels
Listed here are some of the novels written by Bessie Marchant. This list was compiled based on books offered for sale on amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, abebooks.com and/or referenced on goodreads.com. Where these books are available in formats other than print, this is noted in the Available Formats column. The Publication Date is rarely included in the printed copies of Marchant's works; apparently this was common practice in books printed in the early 20th century. Where a publication date is shown, it was discovered through on-line references, such as entries in goodreads.com, so it cannot be guaranteed to be correct. However, because Bessie Marchant books were popular choices for prize-giving or birthday and Christmas presents, an inscription is often found with a date. This date is listed as the 'presentation date', and can be understood to indicate that the book was published prior to that date. The plot summaries shown below are based on reading the book referenced.