{{Short description|English author (1845–1918)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2024}} __NOTOC__ '''Bertha Thomas''' (19 March 1845 – 24 August 1918), was a Victorian pro-feminist writer, author of the 1880 novel ''The Violin Player''.
==Life== Thomas was born on 19 March 1845 at [[Shelsley Beauchamp]] in [[Worcestershire]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Thomas |first1=Bertha |editor1-last=Bohata |editor1-first=Kirsti |title=Stranger within the Gates: Short stories |date=2008 |publisher=Honno |isbn=9781870206945 |page=iv |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Stranger_Within_the_Gates/hWgfAQAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=%22bertha%20thomas%22%20shelsley&dq=%22bertha%20thomas%22%20shelsley&printsec=frontcover |access-date=14 October 2025}}</ref> Her father was Canon John Thomas (died 1883), and her sisters were the composer [[Florence Ashton Marshall]] and the professional clarinettist Frances Thomas.<ref name=d/>
She moved to London in the 1880s, initially living with her father and her sister Frances at 16 [[Gordon Square]], Bloomsbury, until the father's death in 1883.<ref name=p/> She completed seven novels, many of which were serialized in ''[[London Society]]'', and which became popular in the [[Circulating library|circulating libraries]].<ref>Bassett, Troy J. "Author: Bertha Thomas." in [https://www.victorianresearch.org/atcl/show_author.php?aid=732 ''At the Circulating Library: A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837—1901'']</ref> There were also short stories, other writings and articles that were published in periodicals in the UK and the US.<ref>Kirsti Bohata. [https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780203643211-7/bertha-thomas-new-woman-anglo-welsh-hybridity-kirsti-bohata 'Bertha Thomas: the New Woman and ‘Anglo-Welsh’ hybridity'], in ''New Woman Hybridities'', Routledge (2004)</ref> A collection of her short stories was re-issued in 2008.<ref>[https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Stranger_Within_the_Gates.html?id=hWgfAQAAIAAJ&source=kp_book_description&redir_esc=y Bertha Thomas. ''Stranger Within the Gates'' (Honno, 2008)]</ref> Like her sister Frances, Bertha remained unmarried.
==Work== The 1880 novel ''The Violin-Player'' has been described as "perhaps the most triumphant narrative of female musicality in Victorian literature".<ref name=d>Shannon Draucker. [https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Sounding_Bodies/K3wCEQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22florence+ashton+marshall%22&pg=PT131&printsec=frontcover ''Sounding Bodies: Acoustical Science and Musical Erotics in Victorian Literature''] (2024)</ref> Her 1875 booklet ''Latest Intelligence from the Planet Venus'', first published in ''[[Fraser's Magazine|Fraser’s Magazine]]'', presented a satirical argument against giving women the vote. In ''The Son of the House'' (1900), a mother imprisons her son under the guise of insanity to protect the family inheritance - a subversion of [[The Madwoman in the Attic]] Victorian trope of an insane woman controlled by her male relatives.<ref name=p>[https://www.pascal-theatre.com/biographies/bertha-thomas/ Bertha Thomas biography, Pascal Theatre Company]</ref>
Thomas also wrote the libretto for her sister Florence's operetta ''Prince Sprite'' in 1891, published by Novello.<ref>[https://www.salonwithoutboundaries.com/composer-of-the-month-1/2022/9/20/florence-ashton-marshall-1843-1922 'Florence Ashton Marshall 1843-1922'], ''Salon Without Boundaries'', 21 September 2022</ref>
==Bibliography== * ''Proud Maisie'', novel (published anonymously, 1877) * ''Cressida'', novel (1878) * ''The Violin-Player'', novel (1880) * ''In a Cathedral City'' (1882) * ''Life of Richard Wagner'' (Elzevir Library, 1883, translation of biography by Carl Friedrich Glasenapp) * ''Famous Women: George Sand'' ([[Roberts Brothers#Famous Women Series|Eminent Women Series]], 1883, rev. 1889) * ''Ichabod: A Portrait'', novel (1885) * ''Elizabeth's Fortune'', novel (1887) * ''Famous or Infamous'', novel (1890) * ''Sundorne'', novel (1890) * ''The House on the Scar: A Tale of South Devon'' (1890) * ''Camera Lucida: or, Strange Passages in Common Life'', short stories (1897) * ''The Son of the House'', novel (1900) * ''Picture Tales from the Welsh Hills'', short stories (1912) (reprinted as ''Stranger Within The Gates'' (2008)
==References== {{reflist}}
== External links == * {{Librivox author|id=17057}} * {{Gutenberg author |id=33204}}
{{New Woman (late 19th century)}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas, Bertha}} [[Category:1845 births]] [[Category:1918 deaths]] [[Category:19th-century English novelists]] [[Category:English feminist writers]] [[Category:Jewish English writers]] [[Category:Victorian women writers]] [[Category:Writers from Worcestershire]] [[Category:19th-century English women novelists]]