At the age of 25 she became involved in a passionate affair with a defrocked priest and was subsequently sent away to Germany to become governess to a chaplain to the emperor.
There is a great deal of East Lynne here, the sensationalist (in all senses) novel by Mrs Henry Wood in which a ruined gentlewoman returns to her marital home to become governess to her own children, disguised only by some hideous scars and a sturdy veil.
In 1861, Mongkut wrote to his Singapore agent, Tan Kim Ching, asking him to find a British lady to be governess to the royal children.
In March 1887, after several months of studying the records of Samuel Gridley Howe's work with Laura Bridgman, Sullivan arrived in Tuscumbia, Alabama, to become governess to six-year-old Helen Keller, who had been left blind and deaf by an illness contracted at the age of 19 months.
The story is familiar by now: Maria is plucked from her convent in the Austrian Alps to become governess to the seven children of Captain von Trapp, a widower and strict father who has distanced himself from his family and is halfheartedly wooing the worldly Baroness Elsa Schraeder.
Johanna Kessler was married to a much older man and entrusted her children to governesses and tutors, while she played an active role in the social life of Frankfurt.
The Prince of Wales left most of Charlotte's care to governesses and servants, but only allowed her limited contact with the Princess of Wales, who eventually left the country.
In his plays and short stories, Anton Chekhov portrayed a variety of working female protagonists, from actresses to governesses, who sacrificed social esteem and affluence for the sake of financial and personal independence; in spite of this sacrifice, these women are among the few Chekhovian characters who are truly satisfied with their lives.
The fear James explored in the story is one I share - a fear of "the hideous beneath" - a phrase he gave not to his governess but to Maggie in The Golden Bowl.
At a dinner party Thackeray threw for her, she was unable to speak – except to the governess.
