Maria Graham: A Literary Biography By Regina Akel

But there is more in the memoir than this parallel with a single novel. For instance, it is significant that all the events in Maria’s ‘Reminiscences’ are seen through the limited vision of her younger self who becomes the centre of the narrative and the judge of the other characters’ behaviour. Her characterisation is performed in a manner that brings to mind other Victorian novels, particularly those by Dickens, especially in the implication that physical features and modes of dress reflect moral and psychological characteristics. This trait can be best appreciated in her creation of funny or ridiculous characters, and most notably in the placing of antagonists to the protagonist; unlike a Dickensian novel, however, Maria’s antagonists are summarily put down. The suspense and the pathos in her memoir is given by her accurate focalisation of events through the understanding of her younger self who is naturally unaware of circumstances inside her family circle and of the plans the adults have for her future. This feature is especially noticeable in her account of the separation from her mother, an event she does not understand until much later.

It is unclear whether Maria wrote her memoir like a novel or simply related the events of her life in a manner that happened to anticipate the fictional mould of a Victorian narrative. The main thread of the story develops through her happy childhood spent mainly with her mother, as her father was absent at sea. From an early age she was aware of old legends and traditions, such as that of the raising of the devil at the village school of Wallasey, the tales of ghosts and fairies heard during their stay at the Isle of Man, or the reality of shipwrecks, experienced while living in Cheshire. Maria indicates that all these events made such and impression on her imagination that