Lifespan: 1758-1852
Nationality: English
Genres:
Types of Work: Novels, poetry
Contemporaries:
Other Names: Prudentia Homespun; Mrs. West
Style: Conservative and didactic; advocated for expanded education of women; works serve as a counterpoint to the revolutionary politics of her time
Bio: Jane West was born Jane Illiffe in London, England in the year 1758. She claimed to have been self-educated. By 1783, she was married to Thomas West, a yeoman farmer in Leicestershire.
Her first novel, The Advantages of Education, or the History of Maria Williams was published in 1793 under the pseudonym Prudentia Homespun. In all, she published 9 novels and several books of poetry.
Jane died in 1852, and the age of ninety-four, never having achieved the literary success she desired.
Novels:
The Advantages of Education, or The History of Maria Williams
A Gossip's Story, and a Legendary Tale (published as "Prudentia Homespun", 2 vols., 1796)
A Tale of the Times (3 vols., 1799)
The Infidel Father (3 vols., 1802)
The Refusal (1810)
The Loyalists: an Historical Novel (1812)
Alicia de Lacy: an Historical Romance (4 vols., 1814)
Ringrove, or, Old Fashioned Notions (1827)