A Book of Sibyls: Mrs. Barbauld, Miss Edgeworth, Mrs Opie, Miss Austen

Anne Thackeray Ritchie (1837–1919) was a writer and the eldest daughter of the novelist W. M. Thackeray. She had a tumultuous childhood: her mother suffered from depression and was eventually committed to a sanatorium, and the family experienced poverty before her father's literary success. Anne was extremely close to her father, who admired her intellect and encouraged her writing. When he died, Anne set up house with her sister Harriet and her brother-in-law, the literary journalist Lesli...