Emily Eden

Who was Emily Eden?

Emily Eden was an English poet and novelist who gave witty pictures of English life in the early 19th century.

Born in Westminster, Eden was the seventh daughter of William Eden, 1st Baron Auckland, and his wife Eleanor Elliot. She was the great-great-great-aunt of Anthony Eden. In her youth, she and her sister Fanny travelled to India, where her brother George Eden, 1st Earl of Auckland was in residence there as Governor-General from 1835 to 1842. She wrote accounts of her time in India, later collected in the volume Up The Country: Letters Written to Her Sister from the Upper Provinces of India. She also wrote two very successful novels, The Semi-Detached House and The Semi-Attached Couple. The latter was written in 1829 but not published until 1860. Both novels have a comic touch that critics have compared with Jane Austen, who was Emily's favorite author. In addition, her letters were published by Violet Dickinson, a close friend of Virginia Woolf. The letters contain some memorable comments on English public life, most famously her welcome for the new King William IV: "an immense improvement on the last unforgiving animal —this man at least wishes to make everybody happy."