Best known work

• Essays on Women's Work, 1865

Genres

• Journalism
• Poetry
• Politics / Philosophy / Essays
• Biography / Autobiography
• Travel Writing / Translation

Nom de plume

Elizabeth Rayner Parkes, Elizabeth Rayner Belloc, Bessie Parkes Belloc

Social class

Middle class

Parental background

Her father was a politician and lawyer, her mother was the granddaughter of philosopher and scientist Joseph Priestley. Rayner Parkes was educated at boarding school.

At publication of best known work

• Age: 36
• Marital status: Unmarried
• Number of children: 0

Physical description

According to the biography written by her daughter, Parkes "was slender and of medium height. Her eyes were a rather peculiar grey-blue in tint. She had a clear complexion and very little colour. Most people would have said that her one beauty lay in her masses of long, bright brown, naturally wavy hair. She had always been indifferent to the fashion of the day. At a period when brilliant colours - purples, blues, vivid greens were worn, she preferred neutral tints, and to the distress of her mother, and unlike practically every educated girl and woman in Europe, she wore no stays" ("I, Too, Have Lived in Arcadia" A Record of Love and of Childhood (1941) by Marie Belloc Lowndes)

Did you know?

An 1856 review of her essay 'Remarks on the Education of Girls, with reference to the Social, Legal, and Industrial Position of Women in the Present Day' suggested she was a man writing under a nom de plume, because of the "profundity of thought, diverse and extensive knowledge, [...] breadth of view and [...] male eloquence" (Liverpool Mercury May 19 1856).

Additional information

The Orlando project has an entry on Parkes, some of which is available without subscription. Parkes' daughter's memoirs "I, Too, Have Lived in Arcadia" A Record of Love and of Childhood (1941) can be found online via Hathi Trust at and gives an account of her mother's life.