Norma Octavia Lorimer (1864–1948) was a Scots novelist and travel writer, who has been called "One of the most notable early female novelists of the Isle of Man."[1]

Norma Lorimer around 1899

Biography

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Lorimer was born in Auchterarder, Perthshire,[2] the eighth and youngest daughter in a family of eleven.[3] She was raised on the Isle of Man,[2] to which "she returned to in her fiction, showing clearly that she had 'lost her heart' to the South of the Island."[1]

In the 1890s she became secretary to Douglas Sladen, with whom she wrote book two of Queer Things about Sicily (Sicily from a Woman's Point of View).[2] She contributed to the Girl's Own Paper and wrote numerous travel books and 26 "rather sentimental novels."[2] "Perhaps her best book was On Etna," her novel A Wife out of Egypt became a best-seller.[3] "The grand sweep of emotions in her Manx novels offers a fresh colouring to the history and scenery of the South of the Island whilst demonstrating the variance and colour to Manx novels."[1]

Lorimer died on 14 February 1948, in Perth, Scotland.[3]

Adaptations

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  • The 1919 American silent film Woman, Woman! is based on Lorimer's 1915 novel On Desert Altars.
  • The 1921 American film The Lure of Egypt is based on Lorimer's 1922 novel There was a King in Egypt.
  • The 1924 British film Shadow of Egypt is based on Lorimer's 1923 novel The Shadow of Egypt.

Publications

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Travel books

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  • By the Waters of Sicily (1901)
  • Sicily from a Woman's Point of View (1905)
  • More Queer Things about Japan (1905) (with Douglas Sladen)
  • By the Waters of Carthage (1906)
  • By the Waters of Italy (1910)
  • Queer Things about Sicily (1913) (with Douglas Sladen)
  • By the Waters of Egypt (1913)
  • By the Waters of Germany (1914)
  • By the Waters of Africa (1917)
  • The Mediterranean and Beyond (1921)

Novels

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  • A Sweet Disorder (1896)
  • Josiah's Wife (1898)
  • Mirry-Anne: A Manx Story (1900)
  • On Etna (1904)
  • The Second Woman. A Novel (1912)
  • A Wife out of Egypt (1913)
  • On Desert Altars (1915)
  • The God's Carnival (1916)
  • With Other Eyes (1919)
  • Catherine Sterling (1920)
  • A Mender of Images. A Novel (1921)
  • The Path of Love (1921)
  • There Was a King in Egypt (1922)
  • The False Dawn (1923)
  • White Sanctuary (1924)
  • Alec's Mother: A Novel (1925)
  • The Shadow of Egypt (1925)
  • The Yoke of Affection (1926)
  • The Pagan Woman (1927)
  • The End of the Matter (1928)
  • Moslem Jane (1929)
  • Alone (1931)
  • Millstones (1932)
  • False Value (1933)
  • The Story of Isobel Lennox (1935)
  • Where Ignorance is Bliss (1938)

References

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  1. ^ a b c "Norma Lorimer". Manx Literature. Retrieved 21 December 2022.
  2. ^ a b c d Kemp, Sandra; Mitchell, Charlotte; Trotter, David, eds. (2005). The Oxford Companion to Edwardian Fiction. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780191727382. Retrieved 21 December 2022.
  3. ^ a b c "The Late Miss Norma Lorimer". The Perthshire Advertiser, etc. 18 February 1948. p. 5. Retrieved 11 October 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
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