Life and Work of Jane Ellen Harrison

Book Description
Jane Ellen Harrison (1850-1928) was renowned for her work on Greek art and religion. In her application of anthropology to classical studies, she stirred up controversy among her academic colleagues, while, at the same time, influencing many writers, including Yeats, D. H. Lawrence, and Virginia Woolf. This, the first substantial biographical study of Harrison, chronicles the life and work of the first woman in modern England to make a name as a classical scholar, her involvement in controversy throughout her life, and her remarkable influence.


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"A rebel against Victorian mores, Jane Ellen Harrison (1850-1928) was the first woman to make a name in modern classical scholarship. She was renowned for her public lectures on Greek art and for her books on ancient Greek religion and mythology. She was fascinated by primitive ritual as it survives in the superstitions and practices of ordinary people. Working together with Gilbert Murray at Oxford and Francis Cornford at Cambridge, she applied new discoveries in anthropology and sociology to classical studies, stirring up controversy amongst classicists, while influencing English writers such as T. S. Eliot and Virginia Woolf." This biography reveals how much her life, which was marked by personal tragedies, influenced her work. Her success set new directions for classical studies and opened up new possibilities for academic women.


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