Elpis Melena

Elpis Melena (1818–1899, born as Marie Espérance von Schwartz) was an Anglo-German writer who published under the name of Elpis Melena.

Blick auf Calabrien und bei Liparischen Inseln im Jahre 1860, 1861
Elpis Melena.

Daughter of a Hamburg banker, she was born in England and spent much of her early life in Italy and England. She was well known in connection with the movement for Italian unity and freedom and edited the first version of Garibaldi's memoirs in German, published in English in 1887. After first meeting Garibaldi on the island of Caprera in 1857 she received affectionate letters from him and an ultimately unsuccessful proposal of marriage in 1858.[1] After 1865 she lived in Chania.

She took interest in animal welfare and criticized animal testing. In 1875, she read a German translation of George Fleming's vivisection essay which inspired her anti-vivisection novel Gemma order Tugens und Laster (translated as Gemma, or Virtue and Vice).[2] Melena's novel has been described as "mobilizing public opinion against vivisection in Germany".[3]

References
  1. Ridley, Jasper (2001). Garibaldi. London: Phoenix Press. ISBN 1-84212-152-9.
  2. Linzey, Andrew. (2013). The Global Guide to Animal Protection. University of Illinois Press. p. 13. ISBN 978-0252079191
  3. Sax, Boria (1993). "Holocaust Images and Other Powerful Ambiguities in the Debates on Animal Experimentation: Further Thoughts". Anthrozoös. 6 (2): 108–114.

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