Ritchie, Anne Isabella (1837-1919)

Anne Isabella Thackeray, the eldest daughter of the novelist William Makepeace Thackeray, was a novelist herself, and her books were praised by George Eliot. She knew Eliot in the 1870s: Eliot wrote to her in October 1876, asking her to tell the American critic Richard Grant White that she would be glad to see him at the Priory on a Sunday, and again in August 1877, just after Anne's marriage to her cousin Richmond Ritchie, inviting the couple to visit at Witley and recalling that Anne had helped lay the foundation of the Leweses' house there. After Eliot's death, Anne honoured her as one of her "modern sibyls," dedicating her 1913 essay A Discourse on Modern Sibyls to Eliot, Charlotte Brontë, and Margaret Oliphant. In May 1880, days after Eliot's marriage to John Cross, Anne recorded a long conversation with Charles Lewes about the marriage, including Eliot's own words on why she had to be "human with feelings and failings like other people" to write her books.

George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett, https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org

Anne Isabella Ritchie (1837-1919), Ritchie, Anne Isabella (1837-1919), Social Network Gallery, George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett, https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org, Accessed November 11, 2026. https://georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/97145