author
Clara de Chatelain
1807–1876
A hugely versatile Victorian writer, translator, and composer, she moved easily between poetry, fairy tales, songs, and fiction. Her work was known for bringing continental stories and music into English for a broad 19th-century readership.
1 Audiobook
Up! Horsie! An Original Fairy Tale
by Clara de Chatelain
About the author
Born in London on July 31, 1807, Clara de Chatelain was an English writer, composer, and translator who also published under several pseudonyms, including Leopold Wray, Rosalia Santa Croce, and Leopoldine Ziska. She was the daughter of a French émigré father and an English mother, and that bilingual, cross-Channel background helped shape a career built on translation as well as original writing.
She was notably prolific. Alongside poems, stories, and fairy tales, she translated songs and literary works from European languages into English, helping Victorian readers and music lovers encounter material from abroad in a more accessible form. She also moved in literary circles and is remembered as a friend and correspondent of Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
Clara de Chatelain died in London on June 30, 1876. Though she is less widely known today than some of her contemporaries, she stands out as a lively and adaptable 19th-century author whose career crossed genres with unusual ease.