Clarke, Mary Elizabeth

AUTHOR, SALONIÈRE, FEMINIST (ENGLAND)
BORN 22 Feb 1793, London: Westminster - DIED 15 May 1883, Paris
GRAVE LOCATION Paris: Père Lachaise, Rue du Repos 16 (division 56 (Von Mohl tomb))

Mary Elizabeth Clarke was the daughter of a Charles Clarke. He died when she was eight years old and she moved to France with her mother and her grandmother. Both were independent women and her grandmother had known David Hume and Adam smith in Edinburgh. She had friendly relations with their landlady Madame Récamier and frequently visited her sister Eleanor in England. Eleanor had married the landowner and politician John Frewen-Turner (1755-1829). Through her suitor and friend Claude Charles Fauriel (1772-1844) she met the family of Alessandro Manzoni (1785-1873).

In 1838 she rented rooms above François-René de Chateaubriand. Among her guests were Thackeray, the Brownings, the Trollopes and many others and she would receive guests for almost forty years. She generally preferred intellectual men above women but Florence Nightingale became a close friend. Elizabeth Gaskell was another female friend. In 1847 she married the orientalist Julius von Mohl, the son of the prime minister of Württemberg. She was 54 and he was 47 at the time. After she gave up her salon she continued to live in Paris and she died there in 1883.

Family
• Husband: Mohl, Julius (1847-1876)

Related persons
• was visited by Browning, Elizabeth Barrett
• was a friend of Gaskell, Elizabeth
• knew Récamier, Juliette
• was visited by Thackeray, William Makepeace

Images

The grave of Julius Mohl and Mary Elizabeth Mohl-Clarke at Père Lachaise, Paris.
Picture by Androom (01 Nov 2022)

 

Sources
Mary Elizabeth Mohl - Wikipedia (EN)


Clarkson, William Berry

Published: 23 Jul 2023
Last update: 23 Jul 2023