Netta Syrett

Netta Syrett was born Janet Syrett on 17 March 1865 in Ramsgate, Kent. She was one of five daughters (of thirteen children) born to silk merchant Ernest Syrett (d.1906) and Mary Ann, née Stembridge (d.1923) and the niece of writer Grant Allen.{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/newwomanreaderfi0000unse/page/356|title=A New Woman Reader: Fiction, Articles, and Drama of the 1890s|date=1 June 2000|publisher=Broadview Press|isbn=1-55111-295-7|editor=Carolyn Christensen Nelson|location=Peterborough, Ontario|pages=[https://archive.org/details/newwomanreaderfi0000unse/page/356 356]|chapter=Netta Syrett|access-date=5 May 2008|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=flLS5Lg9M_AC&pg=PA52}} Three of her sisters, Nellie Syrett (b. 1882){{Cite web|title=Syrett Nellie b. 1882 {{!}} Artist Biographies|url=https://www.artbiogs.co.uk/1/artists/syrett-nellie|website=www.artbiogs.co.uk|access-date=2020-05-16}} Kate Syrett and Mabel Syrett (1871 – 1961), were artists, designers and illustrators.{{Cite web|title="Mabel Syrett (1871-1961), Yellow Nineties 2.0.|url=https://beta.1890s.ca/syrett_m_bio/|last=Rose|first=Lucy Ella|date=2020|publisher=Ryerson University Centre for Digital Humanities}} First educated at home by their mother and a German governess, Syrett left home at age 11 to attend North London Collegiate School. She continued her education at Hughes Hall, Cambridge where she completed the three years' coursework necessary for a full teaching certificate in one year.(2006) "Netta Syrett" in Jill Tedford Jones: Dictionary of Literary Biography. Gale Thomson.

Syrett taught for two years at a school in Swansea before accepting a post at the London Polytechnic School for Girls. Through her friend and coworker Mabel Beardsley, Netta met Aubrey Beardsley, Mabel's brother, and through him she was introduced to Henry Harland and included in his circle of friends. Harland published three of her short stories in The Yellow Book. Her sisters Nellie Syrett and Mabel Syrett also contributed to The Yellow Book.{{Cite web|title=Netta Syrett (1865-1943) - Y90s Biographies|url=https://1890s.ca/syrett_bio/.|last=Stetz|first=Margaret D|date=2019|website=Yellow Nineties 2.0|publisher=Ryerson University Centre for Digital Humanities}}

Syrett's first novel, Nobody's Fault (1896), was published by The Bodley Head in their Keynotes series. Her writing and teaching careers coincided until 1902, when her play The Finding of Nancy received negative attention after Clement Scott, writing for The Daily Telegraph (9 May 1902), insinuated that the play was thinly disguised autobiography. Syrett was asked to resign her teaching position after a student's mother read Scott's review. By that time, novel writing had become for her "a sure thing" and Syrett continued to turn out a novel per year until retiring in 1939.

Syrett died in London on 15 December 1943 following a long illness.{{cite news |title=Netta Syrett; British Author Wrote 30 Novels; Many Children's Stories |url=https://select.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F1071EF63854107B93CBA81789D95F478485F9 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=19 December 1939 |page=48 |url-access=subscription}}

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• Nobody's Fault (London: John Lane The Bodley Head, 1896)
• The Tree of Life (London: John Lane The Bodley Head, 1897)
• Rosanne (1902)
• The Day's Journey (1905; Chicago: A.C. McClurg, 1906)
• Woman of Circumstance (1906)
• The Child of Promise (1907)
• Anne Page (1908; New York: John Lane, 1909)
• A Castle of Dreams (1909){{cite news |title=A Castle of Dreams |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-new-york-times-a-castle-of-dreams/136833883/ |newspaper=The New York Times |date=2 October 1909 |page=BR585 |access-date=2023-12-14 |via=Newspapers.com}}
• Olivia L. Carew (London: Chatto & Windus, 1910)
• Drender's Daughter (1911){{cite journal|title=Review of Drender's Daughter by Netta Syrett|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=iau.31858029268293;view=1up;seq=588|journal=The Athenæum|date=20 May 1911|number=4360|pages=564}}
• Three Women (1912)
• Barbara of the Thorn (1913)
• The Jam Queen (1914)
• The Victorians (1915; republished as Rose Cottingham)
• Rose Cottingham Married (1916)
• Troublers of the Peace (1917)
• The Wife of a Hero (1918)
• The God of Chance (1920)
• One of Three (1921)
• Lady Gem (London: Hutchinson & Co, 1923; US title: Cupid and Mr. Pepys)
• Path to the Sun (1923)
• The House in Garden Square (London: Hutchinson & Co, n.d., 1924)

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• As the Stars Come Out (1925)
• The Mystery of Jenifer (London: Hutchinson & Co, 1926)
• Julian Carroll (London: Hutchinson & Co, n.d., 1928)
• The Shuttles of Eternity (1928)
• Portrait of a Rebel (London: Geoffrey Bles, November 1929)
• Strange Marriage (1931)
• The Manor House (London: Geoffrey Bles, January 1932; US title: Moon Out of the Sky , 1932; reprinted as The Manor House by R. & L. Locker, n.d., c.1944-1954)
• Who was Florriemay? (1932)
• Aunt Elizabeth (1933)
• The House That Was (London: Rich & Cowan Ltd, 1933)
• Girls of the Sixth Form (1934)
• Judgment Withheld (1934)
• Linda (1935)
• Angel Unawares (London: Geoffrey Bles, 1936)
• The Farm on the Downs (London: Geoffrey Bles, 1936)
• Fulfilment (London: Geoffrey Bles, 1938)
• ...As Dreams Are Made On (1939)
• Gemini (1940)

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• The Finding of Nancy (1902){{cite news |title=A Prize Play in London; 'The Finding of Nancy,' Crowned by the Playgoers' Club, Performed at the St. James's Theatre |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-new-york-times-a-prize-play-in-londo/136833988/ |newspaper=The New York Times |place=London |date=9 May 1902 |page=8 |access-date=2023-12-14 |via=Newspapers.com}}
• Two Domestics (1922)

• "Sylvia" (Macmillan's, 1891)
• "Thy Heart's Desire" (The Yellow Book, July 1894)
• "A Correspondence" (The Yellow Book, October 1895)
• "Her Wedding Day" (Quarto, 1896)
• "Fairy-Gold" (Temple Bar, 1896)
• "Far Above Rubies" (The Yellow Book, January 1897)
• "Chiffon" (Pall Mall, 1900)
• "A Revelation in Arcadia" (Harper's, August 1902){{cite web |title=Syrett, Netta (Harper's Magazine) |url=http://www.harpers.org/subjects/NettaSyrett }}
• "Poor Little Mrs. Villiers" (Venture, 1903)
• "An Idealist" (Harper's, May 1903)
• "An Idealist" (Harper's, May 1903)
• "Blue Roses" (1903; reprinted in The Mammoth Book of Fairy Tales, 1997)
• "The Enchanted Garden" (The Jabberwock, August 1905)
• "Madame de Meline" (Acorn, October 1905)
• "The Street of the Four Winds" (The Jabberwock, May 1906)
• The Endless Journey and Other Stories (1912) Contents: "The endless journey", "One solution", "The passing of a hero", "The real facts", "Miss Cordelia", "A change of view", "An unknown quantity", "A living ghost", "The 'better dream' of Hans Bergmann", "The impossible portrait".

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• The Garden of Delight: Fairy Tales (1898)
• The Magic City and Other Fairy Tales (1903)
• Six Fairy Plays for Children (1904)
• The Dream Garden (1905)
• ''The Hidden Country (1907)serialised in Our Jabberwock 1907
• The Castle of Four Towers (1908)
• The Vanishing Princess (1910)
• The Old Miracle Plays of England - retold as stories for children (London: A. R. Mowbray & Co., 1911)

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• Stories from Mediaeval Romance (1913)
• Godmother's Garden (1918)
• Robin Goodfellow and Other Fairy Plays for Children (1918)
• Toby and the Odd Beasts (1921)
• Rachel and the Seven Wonders (1921)
• The Fairy Doll and Other Plays for Children (1922)
• Magic London (1922)
• Tinkelly Winkle (1923)
• The Magic Castle and Other Stories (1925)

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• The Story of Saint Catherine of Siena (London: A.R. Mowbray & Co., 1910)
• Sketches of European History (1931)
• The Sheltering Tree (autobiography, 1939)

{{Reflist}}

• {{wikisource-inline}}
• {{Commonscatinline}}
• {{Gutenberg author |id=6244| name=Netta Syrett}}
• {{Internet Archive author |sname=Netta Syrett}}
• [https://openlibrary.org/authors/OL1803164A Works by Netta Syrett] at [https://openlibrary.org Open Library]
• {{Librivox author |id=11920}}
• {{LCAuth|nr2002040587|Netta Syrett|37|ue}}

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Category:1865 births

Category:1943 deaths

Category:Alumni of Hughes Hall, Cambridge

Category:English children's writers

Category:English dramatists and playwrights

Category:20th-century English novelists

Category:English short story writers

Category:English women dramatists and playwrights

Category:People from Ramsgate

Category:People educated at North London Collegiate School

Category:English women short story writers

Category:English women novelists

Category:20th-century English women writers

Category:20th-century English short story writers