Sophia Reeve

Born Susan Bonhote in Bungay, Norfolk, in 1777, Sophia Reeve was the daughter of Daniel Bonhote and the poet-novelist Elizabeth Mapes Bonhote. A specialist bibliography from the University of Toronto records that she later married three times, and was also known by the surnames Jeaffreson and Glover before her death in 1847.

Her best-known novel, The Mysterious Wanderer, appeared in 1807. In its opening note, she described it as a "first essay," written largely for her own amusement, which gives the book an appealing sense of ambition and experiment. She later published other fiction, including Stanmore (1824) and Cuthbert (1828), along with several books for younger readers and volumes of verse.

Today, Reeve survives mainly through her books rather than a large public biography. Project Gutenberg and other digital libraries have helped keep The Mysterious Wanderer in circulation, making her a small but intriguing figure for listeners interested in Romantic-era and early Gothic fiction.