Mrs. Humphry Ward (Mary Augusta Arnold), an English novelist; born in Hobart Town, Tasmania, June 11, 1851; eldest daughter of Thomas Arnold, second son of the great Dr. Arnold of Rugby. In 1872 she married Thomas Humphry Ward (born in 1845), the editor of
The English Poets (4 vols. 1880-1881). She began early to contribute to Macmillan's Magazine, and to write short stories. Her translation of
Amiel's Prívate Journal (1885) prepared the way for the widely read spiritual romance of
Robert Elsmere (1888). The book was an attempt to represent the struggle of a soul in its voyage toward newer theistic aspirations after losing the landmarks of the old faith. Profound spiritual insight, broad human sympathy, and strong thinking are manifest throughout, but as a work of art it is marred by diffuseness, its didactic persistency of purpose, and a fatal want of mastery over the fundamental secret of the novelist — the power to make his puppets live rather than preach. Its successor,
David Grieve (1892), showed all its faults but hardly all its merits.
Marcella appeared in 1894. Her later works include
Lady Rose's Daughter,
Diana Ulallory,
The Case of Richard Meynell, and
Eltham House. Mrs. Humphry Ward died in 1920.
