Helen published the following books while a faculty member in the English Department of Framingham State University.
MRs. Trollope
The Triumphant Feminine in the Nineteenth Century
Frances Milton Trollope’s story is that of a remarkable, many-talented, and supremely adaptable woman, who, at the age of 53, launched a successful career as an author. She published her controversial Domestic Manners of the Americans in 1832, a book which remains significant for its perceptive look at the heart of our society and its unique theory that our cultural backwardness arose in large measure from “the lamentable insignificance of the American woman.”
Ohio University Press, 1979.
Restless Angels
The friendship of six Victorian Women
Restless Angels is the composite biography of a circle of early nineteenth-century women, their lives and lot as recorded in a correspondence of some 25 years, carefully preserved by its central figure, Julia Garnett Pertz. Beginning in 1827 when Julia married and moved to Germany, weekly letters passed between her and her sister Harriett and their other women friends until 1852 when Julia died. Numbered among the Garnett sisters’ acquaintances were some famous women–Frances Wright, Mary Clarke Mohl, Florence Nightingale, Frances Trollope, Elizabeth Fry, and Mary Shelley. The sisterhood these women created through their letters was a crucial element in the varying attempts to find solutions to the problems which still trouble women today: how to find a personally satisfying occupation, real usefulness, emotional satisfaction, and how to combine these with women’s traditional roles.
Ohio University Press, 1983.
Three Victorians in the new world
Interpretations of the New World in the works of Frances Trollope, Charles Dickens, and Anthony Trollope
American University Studies, Series IV, v. 106, Peter Lang, publishers, 1992
Frances Trollope (Twayne’s English Authors Series)
Each Twayne book is written by a single author analyzing the body of work for a writer.
American University Studies, Series IV, v. 106, Peter Lang, publishers, 1992
FICtional Works
The following novels belong to the Emma Redux regency romance series.
Book 1: Happily Ever After
Jane Austen’s novel Emma closes with the unions of Emma and Mr. Knightley and Jane Fairfax with Frank Churchill. But what happens next? Part 1 of this novel describes the happenings in Highbury in the next ten years. Part 2 advances another ten years to introduce the next generation of Knightleys.
Available on Amazon (February 2024) as (kindle or paperback)
Book 2: Full Circle
Follows the fates of Hetta and Caroline Knightley, the daughters of Emma and Knightley, and their eventual romantic relationships. One kiss has potent consequences, and more than one kiss may mean a betrothal. In this vividly described world, young women see themselves as independent people, especially when riding the fabled Arabian horses. Medical innovations stemming from the Crimean War also make their way into the narrative. The shadow of Frank Churchill remains problematic to the happiness of Highbury residents. characters find suitable marriages from the next generation of Knightleys.
Available on Amazon (February 2025) as (kindle or paperback)
Book 3: Family Secrets
We learn the destinies of Emma and Isabella Knightley’s families, as well as the Churchill and Weston families. Old secrets, best forgotten, return to potentially disrupt the harmony of Highbury.
Available TBD