author
Isabella Mary Anderton
1858–1904
Drawn to Italian culture and folklore, this English writer is best remembered for gathering Tuscan tales and sketches that were published after her death. Her work offers a warm, observant glimpse of rural Tuscany through the eyes of a thoughtful late Victorian traveler.
1 Audiobook
Tuscan folk-lore and sketches, together with some other papers
by Isabella Mary Anderton
About the author
Isabella Mary Anderton was an English writer and folklorist, born in 1858 and died in 1904. She is chiefly known for Tuscan Folk-Lore and Sketches, together with some other papers, a posthumous collection published in 1905 and edited by her brothers H. Orsmond Anderton and Basil Anderton.
Available biographical sources suggest that she was educated at her father's school, spent time in Germany in the late 1870s, and later developed a deep interest in Italy. After going to Genoa in 1883 to recover from ill health, she formed lasting connections with Italian language and culture, which shaped much of her writing.
Her best-known work preserves a small but distinctive group of folk tales from the Pistoia area of Tuscany, alongside essays, translations, and literary studies. Though her published output was modest, it has continued to attract interest for the way it connects travel, literary culture, and folklore at the turn of the twentieth century.