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Lady Mary Wroth

New Generation Thinker Nandini Das looks at the scandal caused by the 350,000-word prose poem The Countess of Montgomery's Urania and its depiction of women in love.

Author of the first prose romance published in England in 1621, her reputation at court was ruined by her thinly veiled autobiographical writing. Visit the family home, Penshurst Place in Kent, and you can see Lady Mary Wroth's portrait, but New Generation Thinker Nandini Das says you can also find her in the pages of her book The Countess of Montgomery's Urania which places centre stage women who "love and are not afraid to love." Scandal led to her withdrawing it from sale and herself from public life.

Producer: Torquil MacLeod

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14 minutes

Broadcasts

  • Tue 3 Mar 2020 22:45
  • Tue 19 Jul 2022 22:00

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