Literature of Colonial South Asia: A Digital Archive Main Menu Author Profiles Profiles of authors whose works are featured on this site Chronological List Of All Texts On This Site South Asian Women Writers Profiles of South Asian Women Writers, such as Sarojini Naidu, Cornelia Sorabji, Pandita Ramabai Indian Travel Writers in the West: the Colonial Period (1794-1947) Texts by Indian or South Asian Writers Who Visited England, Ireland, Canada, and the United States during the Colonial Period Fiction by Western Women in Colonial India Overview and links to Fiction by Western Women in British India Literature of the 1857 Mutiny / 1857 Rebellion Literature relating to the 1857 Sepoy Mutiny Writers of the Bengal Renaissance: an Overview Interracial Romance and Multi-racial Anglo-Indian Community Writings that feature cross-racial romance or mixed race people Detailed Summaries of Works of Fiction (and some selected nonfiction)

Fanny Emily Penny (1847-1938): Author Profile

184
This author profile was written by Sana Asifriyaz. 

Biography

Fanny Emily Farr Penny (1847-1937) was a British writer of novels and non-fiction. She was born in Covehithe, Suffolk, England, to John and Emily Caroline Cobbold Farr. Her father was a reverend as was her grand-uncle Richard Cobbold. Her mother’s father John Cobbold was a businessman who ran breweries and her mother was the poet Elizabeth Cobbold. Penny received her education in London at Queen's College and Bedford College.

She married Frank Penny, a reverend and chaplain of the Madras Ecclesiastical Establishment, in 1877 and joined him in India. The couple had a son and daughter. In India, Penny experienced the Madras famine, a fact noteworthy enough that it is mentioned in one of her obituaries (see more about Indian famines here). The Pennys lived in the subcontinent until Rev. Penny retired in 1901, at which point the couple moved to Ealing. Penny was part of social groups like the Writers’ Club and the Girl Guides movement, which produced the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) in 1928. Penny died in Ealing at the age of 91.   

Publications

Penny set most of her novels in India, even after she moved back to England in 1901. She incorporates many of her experiences there, such as famine, into her works. Penny initially wrote articles on Indian life for the Madras Mail. 

During her stay in India, Penny met the novelist B.M. Croker who was credited for encouraging Penny to continue cultivating her writing career. Penny’s novels exemplify her sympathetic views toward British imperialism. They often depict conflicts between British and Indian cultures; Penny herself believed Indians were hostile to the British, particularly British rule. Although some of her novels include interracial romances and friendships between British and Indian characters, as in The Mixed Marriage and Caste and Creed, many of them conclude that miscegenation entails devastating consequences. Her 1912 novel The Outcaste is a conversion narrative, describing an upper-caste Hindu's troubles with his family after he decides to convert to Christianity while traveling in England.

Some of Penny’s romance novels feature women protagonists who, in some ways, challenge the popular conventions of the genre. Virginia Blain, Patricia Clements, and Isobel Grundy’s The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present (1990) observes that many of Penny’s women characters are educated, outspoken, and even gainfully employed.

In addition to novels, Penny wrote travel literature on India, one of her better known titles being Southern India. 


Content
Southern India (1914)
The Mixed Marriage (1903)
Caste and Creed (1890)
The Outcaste (1912)
 

Contents of this path:

  1. F. E. Penny, "Caste and Creed" (1890) (full text)
  2. F.E. Penny, "A Mixed Marriage" (1903) (Full Text)
  3. Summary of F.E. Penny, "A Mixed Marriage" (1903)
  4. F.E. Penny, "The Outcaste" (1912) (Full Text)
  5. Summary of F.E. Penny, "The Outcaste" (1912)