Patrons Circle

(1802–1876)

Was an English novelist and social theorist in the field of comparative sociology. Her innovative use of popular fiction to address political and economic issues helped to establish the fictional medium as a vehicle of social reform. Her 1838 work How to Observe Morals and Manners was a pioneering early systematic methodological treatise, in a discipline that philosopher and writer Auguste Comte would term ‘sociology’ the following year.

In addition to 50 books, Martineau penned over 1,600 articles on enslavement, and her three-volume novel The Hour and the Man (1841), about the Haitian general and revolutionary leader Toussaint L'Ouverture, was written to support the abolition of enslavement. This, combined with her vociferous advocacy for women’s education, marked her as a political radical in the eyes of the public on both sides of the Atlantic, but also cemented her legacy as a trailblazing polymath of the Regency and Victorian eras.

(1811–1863)

Was an English novelist and illustrator. Thackeray is particularly known for his 1847–1848 self-illustrated novel Vanity Fair, which satirises British society during and after the Napoleonic Wars, and the 1844 picaresque novel The Luck of Barry Lyndon, which was adapted into the 1975 film Barry Lyndon by Stanley Kubrick.

Thackeray bean his career with satirical sketches such as The Yellowplush Papers (1837), challenging established societal and literary perspectives – and perceived hypocrisy – on high society, military prowess, and the institution of marriage. His ironic cult status among the very echelons of society that his works had lampooned propelled Thackeray to the heights of Victorian celebrity – and perhaps provided motivation for his more mellow, less overtly critical output in his later years – but also firmly secured his place in the British literary canon.

(1812–1870)

Was an English writer of novels and short stories, a journalist, and a campaigner for children’s rights and education. Considered by many to be the greatest novelist of the Victorian era, his works and his well-known fictional characters were exceedingly popular during his lifetime and beyond, with critics lauding his astute observation of society and the human character, as well as the satirical and humorous tone of much of his oeuvre.

When he answered Scottish essayist, historian and philosopher Thomas Carlyle’s call to help fund a London-based lending library in 1840, Dickens had written five bestsellers in book and serial form in the space of just four years: Sketches by Boz (1836), The Pickwick Papers (1836-37), Oliver Twist (1837-39), Nicholas Nickleby (1838-39) and The Old Curiosity Shop (1840-41). As an established literary name, Dickens’s backing brought invaluable prestige to the Library’s name, helping to secure our legacy as a home of literary inspiration for readers, writers and thinkers long after he and his fellow founder members were gone.