Ethel Lilian Voynich

Infobox Writer
name = Ethel Lilian Voynich


imagesize = 140px
caption =
birthname = Ethel Lilian Boole
birthdate = birth date|1864|5|11|df=yes
County Cork, Ireland
deathdate = death date and age|1960|7|27|1864|5|11|df=yes
New York City, United States
occupation = Novelist, Musician
notableworks = "The Gadfly"
influences =
influenced =

Ethel Lilian Voynich, "née" Boole (May 11, 1864–July 27, 1960) was a novelist and musician, and a supporter of several revolutionary causes. Her father was the famous mathematician George Boole. Her mother was feminist philosopher [Showalter 1977, p. 63.] Mary Everest, [Sometimes given as "Everett". Showalter 1977, p. 63.] niece of George Everest and an author for the early-20th-century periodical "Crank". [Showalter 1977, pp.251–252.] In 1893 she married Wilfrid Michael Voynich, revolutionary, antiquarian and bibliophile, the eponym of the Voynich manuscript.

Life

She is most famous for her novel "The Gadfly", first published in 1897 in the United States (June) and Britain (September), about the struggles of an international revolutionary in Italy. This novel was very popular in the Soviet Union and was the top best seller and compulsory reading there, and was seen as ideologically useful; for similar reasons, the novel has been popular in the People's Republic of China as well. By the time of Voynich's death "The Gadfly" had sold an estimated 2,500,000 copies in the Soviet Union. [ [http://www.corklibrary.ie/aboutus/librarypublications/ Cork City Libraries] provides a [http://www.corkcitylibraries.ie/media/socoiglighwebversion16.pdf downloadable PDF] of Evgeniya Taratuta's 1957 biographical pamphlet "Our Friend Ethel Lilian Boole/Voynich", translated from the Russian by Séamus Ó Coigligh. The pamphlet gives some idea of the Soviet attitude toward Voynich.]

In 1955, the Soviet director Aleksandr Fajntsimmer adapted the novel into a film of the same title ( _ru. Ovod). Composer Dmitri Shostakovich wrote the score (see "The Gadfly Suite"). The "Romance", a segment from this composition, along with some other excerpts, has since become very popular. Shostakovich's Gadfly theme was also used in the eighties, in the BBC TV series "Reilly, Ace of Spies".

According to historian Robin Bruce Lockhart, Sidney Reilly — a Russian-born adventurer and secret agent employed by the British Secret Intelligence Service — met Ethel Voynich in London in 1895. Ethel Voynich was a significant figure not only on the late Victorian literary scene but also in Russian émigré circles. Lockhart, who was also a British Secret Service agent, claims that Reilly and Voynich had a sexual liaison and voyaged to Italy together. During this scenic tarriance, Reilly apparently "bared his soul to his mistress," and revealed to her the story of his strange youth in Russia. After their brief affair had concluded, Voynich published in 1897 her novel "The Gadfly", the central character of which, Arthur Burton, was allegedly based on Sidney Reilly's own early life. [Robin Bruce Lockhart, "Reilly: Ace of Spies"; 1986, Hippocrene Books, ISBN 0-88029-072-2.] However, Andrew Cook, a noted biographer of Reilly, disputes Lockhart's version and counters instead that Reilly was perhaps informing on Voynich's radical, pro-émigré activities to William Melville of the Metropolitan Police Special Branch. [Andrew Cook, "Ace of Spies: The True Story of Sidney Reilly", 2004, Tempus Publishing, ISBN 0-7524-2959-0. Page 39.]

Legacy

A minor planet 2032 Ethel discovered in 1970 by Soviet astronomer Tamara Mikhailovna Smirnova is named after her. [cite book | last = Schmadel | first = Lutz D. | coauthors = | title = Dictionary of Minor Planet Names | pages = p. 165 | edition = 5th | year = 2003 | publisher = Springer Verlag | location = New York | url = http://books.google.com/books?q=2032+Ethel+1970+4482 | id = ISBN 3540002383]

Works

*"Stories from Garshin" (1893)
*"The Gadfly" (1897)
*"Jack Raymond" (1901)
*"Olive Latham" (1904)
*"An Interrupted Friendship" (Russian "Ovod v Izgnanii" (meaning "The Gadfly in exile") (1910)
*"Put Off Thy Shoes" (1945)

Footnotes

References

*Showalter, Elaine. "A literature of their own: from Charlotte Brontë to Doris Lessing". Princeton University Press, 1977, ISBN 978-0-8606-8285-1.

External links

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