Marilyn Butler

Marilyn Butler

Marilyn Butler, Lady Butler, FRSL FRSA FBA (born 1937) is a British literary critic. She was Rector of Exeter College, Oxford from 1993 to 2004, and was King Edward VII Professor of English Literature at the University of Cambridge, from 1986 to 1993. She is a Fellow of the British Academy.

She was educated at Wimbledon High School and St Hilda's College, Oxford.

Her published works include Romantics, Rebels and Reactionaries and Jane Austen and the War of Ideas. Much of her work has been devoted to the career of the Anglo-Irish novelist Maria Edgeworth, including a classic literary biography of Maria Edgeworth and an important collected edition of Edgeworth's works for Pickering & Chatto.

She is married to David Butler; the couple have three sons. In June 2003 she was awarded an honorary degree from the Open University as Doctor of the University.