[6] Elizabeth objected to a biography being published during her lifetime, but in 1910 a full description of her life accompanied a volume of collected poems, The Poetical Works of Mrs. Horace Dobell; with a Biographical Sketch.
They were in all styles of verse and subject matter from lyrics, odes and philosophic musings to lengthy reveries and legendary ballads, but wildness, romance, and contemplation were generally the leading characteristics.
[8] After her marriage and move to London she assisted her husband in his studies to identify a cure for consumption (tuberculosis), often sitting up until the early hours of the morning.
This decision was taken primarily to avoid disturbing their quiet and studious domestic life, but it was also to prevent causing annoyance to her brother-in-law Sydney, who was then publishing his own poetry.
Nearly ten years later, the sudden departure of her eldest daughter to South Africa under unfortunate circumstances seemingly had a dire effect on her already shattered nerves, for she suffered a complete loss of memory and physical power.
[10] In 1880 she published Versus a Woman; Pro Women; a Man's Thoughts about Men; and Other Articles as a critical response to Young Mrs Jardine by her literary acquaintance Dinah Craik.
However, some independent reviewers considered it a noble defence of women by a woman, one stating that "Mrs. Dobell's vigorous protest will, no doubt, emancipate not a few minds from the thraldom of its prejudiced misconceptions".
A review of this work by Oscar Wilde, printed anonymously in the Pall Mall Gazette in January 1888, was somewhat disparaging: "The volume that now lies before us is entitled "In the Watches of the Night," most of the poems that it contains having been composed, "in the neighbourhood of the sea, between the hours of ten and two o'clock."