Name Maria Budden Role Novelist | Died 1832 | |
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Books Claudine - Or - Humility - t, Chit‑Chat - Or - Short Tales in S, True Stories from Mod | ||
Maria Elizabeth Budden, (née Halsey, c. 1780–1832) was a novelist, translator and writer of didactic children's books, who frequently signed her work "M. E. B." or "A Mother".
Source material
Little has come to light about Budden's life. Her most popular work throughout the first half of the 19th century was her anonymously published Always Happy!!: Or, Anecdotes of Felix and his Sister Serena. A Tale (1814). Also perennially popular were her True Stories... series of history books for young people (1819 onwards), and her novel Claudine: or Humility the Basis of All of the Virtues. A Swiss Tale (1822).
These and other works of hers are available today in a number of print on demand editions, as they offer scholars interesting source material on the history of education and upbringing. According to a modern account, Budden was writing at her peak more than a book a year for her publisher, John Harris.
Like the poet and novelist Elizabeth Thomas, Budden has been associated tentatively with the pseudonymous "Mrs. Bridget Bluemantle", author of nine novels published by the London Minerva Press between 1806 and 1818. However, Budden's Claudine... and "Mrs Bluemantle's" Claudine... are different novels.