14 Facts About Caroline Spurgeon

Caroline Frances Eleanor Spurgeon was an English literary critic.

Caroline Spurgeon was the first woman to be awarded a chair at the University of London, and only the third in Britain.

Caroline Spurgeon co-founded the International Federation of University Women with Virginia Gildersleeve.

Caroline Spurgeon was educated at Cheltenham Ladies' College, Dresden and at King's College London and University College London.

Caroline Spurgeon is known as the first female university professor in London, the second in England.

Caroline Spurgeon was the first female professor of English Literature.

Caroline Spurgeon became a member of the staff of Bedford College, London, in 1901, and successfully competed for the newly created chair for English literature in 1913.

Caroline Spurgeon was an expert on William Shakespeare and Geoffrey Chaucer.

Caroline Spurgeon's thesis, published in 1911 in Paris, was on Chaucer devant la critique, and in 1929 in London on 500 years of Chaucer criticism and allusion.

Caroline Spurgeon's most famous work, Shakespeare's Imagery and What it Tells Us is a methodologically innovative compendium and analysis of poetic images.

Caroline Spurgeon was an active militant in favour of women's eligibility to academic degrees.

Caroline Spurgeon advocated for more opportunities for foreign women in British universities.

In 1935, Caroline Spurgeon wrote the pioneer study on the use of images in William Shakespeare's work, called Shakespeare's Imagery, and what it tells us.

Caroline Spurgeon shows that there is a "cluster", or there are several "clusters", of images in each of the major plays, for instance, illness and injury images in Hamlet, and light and darkness images in Romeo and Juliet.