Louisa Stanhope

Who is Louisa Stanhope?

Louisa Sidney Stanhope was an English novelist of the early 19th century. She wrote mainly historical and Gothic romances.

A scholar notes of The Age We Live In and Runnemede that they are didactic novels aimed at younger female readers, for whom it was, in Stanhope's words, "requisite to pamper the insatiate palate of romance-readers; else would the page be cast aside, and the poor author stigmatized with dullness and insipidity." Her characters maintain a balance of feminine delicacy and strength of mind.

Nothing appears to be known of the author personally. There is no evidence other than dates for identifying her with Louisa Grenville, the second wife of Charles Stanhope, 3rd Earl Stanhope, from whom she separated in 1806, receiving a payment from him of £1500 a year.