The Essay: Lady Mary Wroth

New Generation Thinker Nandini Das looks at the scandal caused by the 350,000 word prose poem The Countess of Montgomery's Urania and its depiction of women in love. Author of the first prose romance published in England in 1861, her reputation at court was ruined by her thinly veiled autobiographical writing. Visit the family home in Penshurst Place in Sussex and you can see Lady Mary Wroth's portrait but New Generation Thinker Nandini Das says you can also find her in the pages of her book The Countess of Montgomery's Urania which places women centre stage who `love and are not afraid to love." Scandal led to her withdrawing it from sale and withdrawing from public life