author
Mrs. (Elizabeth) Bonhote
1744–1818
An English novelist, essayist, and poet from Suffolk, she is best remembered for bringing local history and Gothic atmosphere together in her fiction. Her best-known book, Bungay Castle, grew out of a real castle ruin connected to her family life.
1 Audiobook
Bungay Castle: A Novel. v. 1/2
by Mrs. (Elizabeth) Bonhote
About the author
Born Elizabeth Mapes and baptized in Bungay, Suffolk, in 1744, she became known as Mrs. Bonhote after marrying Daniel Bonhote. She wrote novels, essays, and poetry, building a career as a thoughtful and versatile writer in the late eighteenth century.
Her books include The Rambles of Mr. Friendly, The Fashionable Friend, Olivia, Darnley Vale, Ellen Woodley, and Bungay Castle. That last novel became her best-known work, a Gothic romance linked to the real Bungay Castle, whose ruins her husband had purchased.
She died in 1818. Although not as widely read now as some of her contemporaries, she remains of interest to readers who enjoy early women’s writing, moral fiction, and the Gothic tradition.