• Entry type: Person
  • Entry ID: AWE3685

Evans, Henrietta Matilda Jane

(1827 – 1886)
  • Born 7 August, 1827, Peckham Park Surrey United Kingdom
  • Died 22 October, 1886, Adelaide South Australia
  • Occupation Novelist, Teacher, Writer

Summary

Matilda Evans arrived in Adelaide with her family in 1851. Her first novel, Marian, or the Light of Someone’s Home was completed in 1861 while Evans was working as a governess near Mt Barker. After the death of her husband, Ephraim Evans, she opened a school at Angaston and resumed writing novels. Her works, which always had religious and temperance themes, included Vermont Vale: or Home Pictures in Australia (1866), Emily’s Choice: An Australian Tale (1867), Minnie’s Mission: an Australian Temperance Tale (1869) and Golden Gifts (1869). Evans opened Angaston House in North Adelaide in 1868. A collected edition of her fourteen novels was republished several times.

Published resources

  • Edited Book
    • 200 Australian Women: A Redress Anthology, Radi, Heather, 1988
  • Conference Proceedings
    • All Her Labours: Third Women and Labour Conference, Adelaide, Publications Collective, Women and Labour Conference, 1984
  • Book
    • Vermont Vale, or, Home Pictures in Australia, Franc, Maud Jeanne, 1866
    • Beatrice Melton's Discipline, Franc, Maud Jeanne, 1880
    • Emily's Choice: An Australian Tale, Franc, Maud Jeanne, 1875
    • Golden Gifts: An Australian Tale, Franc, Maud Jeanne, 1869
    • Hall's Vineyard, Franc, Maud Jeanne, 1875
    • Into the Light, Franc, Maud Jeanne, 1885
    • John's Wife, Franc, Maud Jeanne, 1876
    • Little Mercy, or, For Better, For Worse, Franc, Maud Jeanne, 1877
    • Marian, or, The Light of Someone's Home, Franc, Maud Jeanne, 1866
    • Minnie's Mission: An Australian Temperance Tale, Franc, Maud Jeanne, 1869
    • No Longer a Child, Franc, Maud Jeanne, 1885
    • Silken Cords and Iron Fetters: An Australian Tale, Franc, Maud Jeanne, 1870
    • South Australian Christmas Annual, 1881: Containing Tales, Franc, Maud Jeanne, George E. Loyau et al, 1881
  • Resource
  • Resource Section