{{Short description|English novelist and poet (1816–1900)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}} {{Use British English|date=May 2012}} thumb|Anne Beale (1816–1900), as depicted in a 1901 issue of ''Girls' Own Paper'' '''Anne Beale''' (1816 – 17 April 1900) was a popular English novelist and poet based in Wales. Her poetry, novels and stories appeared in print for over 50 years in her lifetime: "an unusually long career as an author".<ref name="Aaron">Jane Aaron, [https://books.google.com/books?id=h0iuBwAAQBAJ&dq=Anne%20Beale%20governess%20Llandeilo&pg=PA123 ''Nineteenth-Century Women's Writing in Wales: Nation, Gender and Identity''] (University of Wales Press 2010), pp. 123–124, {{ISBN|9780708322871}}</ref> She was born and educated in Somerset and started a career as a governess. In 1841, she settled in Carmarthenshire. She started writing to supplement her teaching income, but she later earned enough to write full time.
==Biography== Anne Beale was born at Langport, Somerset.<ref>[https://readingwales.wordpress.com/tag/anne-beale/ Reading Wales - Uncovering 19th Century Welsh Writers in English]. Accessed 12 July 2014</ref> She was educated at Bath, Somerset by "Madame de Bellecour". Her older sister Elizabeth Compton Beale was a singer by training.<ref>[http://www.victorianvoices.net/ARTICLES/GOP/People/1901-AnneBeale.pdf "Anne Beale, Governess and Writer: Extracts from her Diary"] ''Girls' Own Paper'' (1901), pp. 4–6.</ref>
Beale lived near Llandeilo in Carmarthenshire from 1841,<ref name="Williams">{{Dictionary of Welsh Biography|first=William |last=Williams |year=1959 |id=s-BEAL-ANN-1816 |title=Beale, Anne (1816 - 1900), writer}}</ref> at first working as a governess for the family of an Anglican clergyman. Her income from writing eventually allowed her to make it her full-time profession, instead of a supplement to her teaching income.<ref name="Aaron"/> Late in life she moved to London, where she died at 68 Belsize Road, South Hampstead, in April 1900.<ref>[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4869094/death_of_anne_beale_1900/ "Death of Anne Beale"] ''Winnipeg Tribune'' (21 April 1900): 1. via Newspapers.com{{open access}}</ref> As well as her girls' stories and a volume of poetry, she contributed Welsh-interest articles and poems to English and Scottish magazines.<ref name="Williams"/>
==Reception== Her depictions of Wales and the Welsh were admired for their sympathy and attention to detail. An 1869 review of ''Country Courtships'' in the Welsh newspaper ''The Welshman'' reported: "She knows the country well, and her descriptions of its scenery, its institutions, its people are severely truthful but, at the same time, so skilfully done, and with so much warmth and character as to captivate every person who cares to read one of the best and ablest novels of the season."<ref>[http://newspapers.library.wales/view/4354189/4354195/27/Anne%20Beale "Country Courtships: A New Novel by Miss Beale of Llandilo"] ''The Welshman'' (22 October 1869): 6.</ref>
However, a review of the novel ''Simplicity and Fascination'' (1855) by the newspaper ''San Francisco Chronicle'' in 1893 called it "old-fashioned... bulky, verbose, full of stilted dialogue and verbose explanations."<ref>[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4869166/brief_review_of_anne_beale_simplicity/ Brief review of Anne Beale, ''Simplicity and Fascination''], in ''San Francisco Chronicle'' (30 April 1893): 6. via Newspapers.com{{open access}}</ref>
==Selected works== *''Traits and Stories of the Welsh Peasantry'' (1849)<ref name="DWB">{{cite DWB|id=s-BEAL-ANN-1816|title=Beale, Anne (1816-1900), writer|author=William Williams|access-date=10 December 2025}}</ref> *''The Baronet's Family'' (1852)<ref>Anne Beale, [https://books.google.com/books?id=NbcBAAAAQAAJ ''The Baronet's Family''] (Thomas Cautley Newby, 1852, in 3 vol.)</ref> *''Simplicity and Fascination'' (1855)<ref>Anne Beale, [https://books.google.com/books?id=d7cBAAAAQAAJ ''Simplicity and Fascination''] (R. Bentley 1855, in 3 vol.)</ref> *''Gladys the Reaper'' (1860)<ref name="DWB"/> *''Nothing Venture, Nothing Have'' (1864) *''Rose Mervyn of Whitelake'' (1879)<ref name="DWB"/> *''The Queen O'the May'' (1881) *''The Pennant Family'' (1885)<ref>Anne Beale, [https://books.google.com/books?id=ewwGAAAAQAAJ ''The Pennant Family''] (Hodder & Stoughton 1885).</ref> *''Courtleroy'' (1887)<ref>Anne Beale, [https://books.google.com/books?id=92UUAAAAQAAJ ''Courtleroy''] (Hurst & Blackett 1887, in 3 vol.).</ref> *''Old Gwen'' (1888) *''Charlie is My Darling'' (1891)
''Gladys of Harlech'' (1858) and ''Country Landlords'' (1860) are both frequently attributed to Anne Beale, but the title page of the original edition gives the author's name as "L.M.S": its true author was Louisa Matilda Spooner.<ref>[http://victorianresearch.org/atcl/show_author.php?aid=1199 At the Circulating Library: a Database of Victorian Fiction 1837-1901]</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Gladys of Harlech – Honno Press|url=https://www.honno.co.uk/catalogue/fiction/historical-fiction/gladys-of-harlech/|access-date=2021-08-03|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Country Landlords |url=https://www.honno.co.uk/books/country-landlords |access-date=2026-01-19 |website=Honno Ltd New |language=en}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
==External links== *{{Gutenberg author |id=Beale,+Anne | name=Anne Beale}} *{{Internet Archive author |sname=Anne Beale}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Beale, Anne}} Category:1816 births Category:1900 deaths Category:19th-century English novelists Category:19th-century English poets Category:19th-century Welsh novelists Category:19th-century Welsh poets Category:19th-century Welsh women writers Category:People from Langport Category:Welsh women novelists Category:Welsh women poets Category:English governesses Category:Victorian novelists Category:Victorian women writers Category:Writers from Somerset Category:Welsh historical novelists Category:English women historical novelists Category:English historical novelists Category:Writers of historical fiction set in the early modern period Category:19th-century English women novelists Category:19th-century English women poets