Lady Catharine Long (née Walpole; 1797 – 30 August 1867) was an English novelist and religious writer of the 19th century.[1]
Catherine Long was the youngest daughter of Horatio Walpole, 2nd Earl of Orford, and his wife Sophia Churchill.[1] She married Henry-Lawes Long of Hampton Lodge, Surrey, 22 July 1822. She died suddenly - according to the Dictionary of National Biography - "from alarm in a thunderstorm" on 30 August 1867, leaving seven daughters (one of whom, Charlotte Caroline Georgina Long, married Henry Howard) and a son. She engaged in much literary work, chiefly in the way of religious fiction, and published some pieces of sacred music.[2]
Long's first work, Sir Roland Ashton, a Tale of the Times, was a religious novel directed against the tractarian movement.[2] Stevens notes that Long reflected on contemporary concerns about the morality and aesthetics of the use of the novel form for religious subject-matter in her preface to the book, but notes that "Long's notion of novel writing being 'in God's hands' with the author as a kind of amanuensis, was one that was becoming increasingly familiar as the century wore on".[3]
Her works are:[2]