Maria Edgeworth

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Standard Name: Edgeworth, Maria
Birth Name: Maria Edgeworth
Pseudonym: M. E.
Pseudonym: M. R. I. A.
ME wrote, during the late eighteenth century and especially the early nineteenth century, long and short fiction for adults and children, as well as works about the theory and practice of pedagogy. Her reputation as an Irish writer, and as the inventor of the regional novel, has never waned; it was long before she became outmoded as a children's writer; her interest as a feminist writer is finally being explored.
Watercolour portrait of youthful-looking Maria Edgeworth by John Downman, 1807. She sits on a straight-backed chair, wearing a lacy cap with a blue bow, and a blue, empire-style dress over white, high-necked, gauzy linen.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Wealth and Poverty Mary Whateley Darwall
Unseemly competition developed for the parish, with John Darwall's former curate shamelessly pulling strings and telling lies in an effort not only to keep the parish for himself to the detriment of MWD 's stepson...
Wealth and Poverty Mary Russell Mitford
The prime movers of this achievement were Henry F. Chorley (who later edited her letters) and the Rev. William Harness ; the name of Queen Victoria headed the list of subscribers.
Mudge, Bradford Keyes, editor. Dictionary of Literary Biography 116. Gale Research.
116: 195
Pigrome, Stella. “Mary Russell Mitford”. The Charles Lamb Bulletin, Vol.
66
, Charles Lamb Society, pp. 53-62.
54
It...
Violence Bessie Rayner Parkes
Not only had the occupying troops burned the furniture and staircases, defaced the pictures or shot them full of holes: out of the dungheaps covering the gardens were retrieved letters or scraps of letters from...
Travel Elizabeth Hamilton
EH spent three months in Ireland and stayed with Maria Edgeworth at Edgeworthstown.
Hamilton, Elizabeth. “Introduction”. Translation of the Letters of a Hindoo Rajah, edited by Pamela Perkins and Shannon Russell, Broadview, pp. 7-50.
50
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Julia Kavanagh
In this second work of women's literary history, JK once again limits herself to the novel. Her canon comprises ten authors, from Aphra Behn to Sydney Morgan by way of Sarah Fielding , Frances Burney
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Susan Ferrier
SF 's letters deal mainly with day-to-day occurrences, but her literary opinons are always worth having. She comments on several works by Lady Charlotte Campbell (later Bury) . Reading Austen 's Emma in 1816 (the...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Sheila Kaye-Smith
Here she relates significant moments in her life to what she was reading at the time. She says that her reading, directed at first by chance and the choices of others, later moved towards what...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Anne Grant
She likes her reading to be strenuous: she recommends Jane Austen 's Mansfield Park as light reading,
Grant, Anne. Memoir and Correspondence of Mrs. Grant of Laggan. Editor Grant, John Peter, Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans.
2: 68
and says she would be happy to give a whole summer to Laetitia-Matilda Hawkins 's The...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Catherine Hutton
Of particular value in CH 's letters are her comments on literature. She offered detailed views on (probably) Elizabeth Heyrick 's Exposition, a pamphlet about economics, admiring the language while doubting Heyrick's capacity to...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Anne Grant
Leaving these images of militarism and turning back to Britain with Princess Charlotte in mind, AGcast[s] a forward glance to hope again / Protracted blessings in a female reign,
Grant, Anne. Eighteen Hundred and Thirteen. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown; J. Ballantyne.
48
looking to Charlotte to...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Eva Figes
Though she mentions such writers as Eliza Haywood and Mary Davys , she begins her detailed discussion with the 1790s (a time which twenty years on would be regarded as somewhat late in the history...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Elizabeth Pipe Wolferstan
Here she expounds her method of teaching her grandchildren [or step-grandchildren] through play, and features acute critical comment on female writers for children. In particular, she makes detailed, intelligent criticism of Maria Edgeworth 's children's...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Margaret Kennedy
Here Kennedy argues that entertainment and enjoyment are valuable aims for the novel. She maintains that the novelist is, in essence, a storyteller, but the storyteller-novelist has been excluded by a literary society that devalues...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Elizabeth Grant
Her range of curiosity of wide. Of orthodox Jews she writes, Is not priestcraft the same in all climes, in all ages, in all forms of worship?
Grant, Elizabeth. The Highland Lady in Ireland. Editors Pelly, Patricia and Andrew Tod, Canongate.
96
She believes that politically disturbing plays ought...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Melesina Trench
About the first twenty pages are occupied by MT 's early reminiscences, probably written not long after her first husband's death: she frankly recorded her emotional disturbance over that event.
Trench, Melesina. The Remains of the Late Mrs. Richard Trench. Editor Trench, Richard Chenevix, Parker and Bourn.
18
Later pages mix letters...

Timeline

About 1766: Printer and engraver John Spilsbury perfected...

Building item

About 1766

Printer and engraver John Spilsbury perfected the dissected map which became the forerunner of the jigsaw puzzle.

1783-89: Thomas Day anonymously published The History...

Writing climate item

1783-89

Thomas Day anonymously published The History of Sandford and Merton, a didactic book for children in three volumes (the second published in 1786).

By early March 1792: According to Maria Edgeworth, 25,000 families...

National or international item

By early March 1792

According to Maria Edgeworth , 25,000 families in England had joined in the boycott against West Indian, that is slave-grown, sugar.

2 July 1798: The conservative Lady's Monthly Museum: or...

Writing climate item

2 July 1798

The conservative Lady's Monthly Museum: or polite repository of amusement and instruction published its first number. Sometimes called The Ladies' Monthly Museum . . . it ran until the 1830s.

10 May to 14 August 1813: The British Institution held a retrospective...

Building item

10 May to 14 August 1813

The British Institution held a retrospective exhibition of 141 paintings by Sir Joshua Reynolds at its Pall Mall Picture Galleries: a major event of the social season, both cultural and patriotic.
Barchas, Janine. What Jane Saw. http://www.whatjanesaw.org.

15 July 1819: Byron began to publish in instalments (opening...

Writing climate item

15 July 1819

Byron began to publish in instalments (opening with cantos one and two) his satiricalmock-epicpoemDon Juan; he left it unfinished at his death.

9 December 1826: The Literary Gazette printed a Key to Marianne...

Women writers item

9 December 1826

The Literary Gazette printed a Key to Marianne Spencer Hudson 's silver-fork novel, Almack's (titled after the well-known elite gentlemen's club of the same name), which had already reached its second edition this year. The...

1 January 1830: J. W. Croker for the first time used the...

Writing climate item

1 January 1830

J. W. Croker for the first time used the word Conservative to refer to the party which for a century and half had been called Tory.

1835: Ann Fraser-Tytler's children's novel Mary...

Women writers item

1835

Ann Fraser-Tytler 's children's novelMary and Florence; or, Grave and Gay was anonymously published at London.

9 August 1838: The Hampstead circulating library, intended...

Writing climate item

9 August 1838

The Hampstead circulating library, intended for the middling and lower ranks, which had stocked no novels on principle except those of Scott and Edgeworth , found these were borrowed so much more often than...

17 February 1847: The Whittington Club (named after the poor...

Building item

17 February 1847

The Whittington Club (named after the poor boy who became Lord Mayor of London) held its first meeting. Unlike traditional gentlemen's clubs, it welcomed women and lower-middle-class men.

Spring 1852: Samuel Orchart Beeton (later the husband...

Building item

Spring 1852

Samuel Orchart Beeton (later the husband of Isabella Mary Beeton) began publishing the Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine, which stimulated the spread of home dressmaking.

By Christmas 1869: Francis Galton, mathematician, scientist,...

Writing climate item

By Christmas 1869

Francis Galton , mathematician, scientist, and eugenicist, published Hereditary Genius: An Enquiry into its Laws and Consequences,

April 1879: James Murray—editor since 1 March of what...

Writing climate item

April 1879

James Murray —editor since 1 March of what was to become the Oxford English Dictionary—issued an Appeal for readers to supply illustrative quotations.

Texts

Edgeworth, Richard Lovell, and Maria Edgeworth. A Letter to the Right Hon. the Earl of Charlemont. P. Byrne, 1797.
Edgeworth, Maria. Belinda. J. Johnson, 1801.
Edgeworth, Maria. Belinda. Editor Ní Chuilleanáin, Eiléan, J. M. Dent and Sons, 1993.
Edgeworth, Maria. Belinda. Oxford University Press, 1994.
Edgeworth, Maria. Castle Rackrent. J. Johnson, 1800.
Edgeworth, Maria. Comic Dramas. R. Hunter, 1817.
Edgeworth, Maria. Continuation of Early Lessons. J. Johnson, 1814.
Leadbeater, Mary, and Maria Edgeworth. Cottage Dialogues among the Irish Peasantry. J. Johnson, 1813.
Edgeworth, Maria. Early Lessons. Joseph Johnson, 1801.
Edgeworth, Richard Lovell, and Maria Edgeworth. Essay on Irish Bulls. Joseph Johnson, 1802.
Edgeworth, Maria, and Richard Lovell Edgeworth. Harrington, A Tale; and, Ormond, A Tale. R. Hunter, Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy, 1817.
Edgeworth, Maria. Helen. R. Bentley, 1834.
Watson, George, and Maria Edgeworth. “Introduction”. Castle Rackrent, Oxford University Press, 1964, p. vii - xxv.
Figes, Eva, and Maria Edgeworth. “Introduction”. Belinda, Pandora, 1986, p. vii - xi.
Figes, Eva, and Maria Edgeworth. “Introduction”. Patronage, Pandora, 1986, p. ix - xi.
Gee, Maggie, and Maria Edgeworth. “Introduction”. Helen, Pandora Press, 1987, p. vii - xii.
McCormack, William John et al. “Introduction”. The Absentee, The World’s Classics, Oxford University Press, 1988, p. ix - xlvii.
Myers, Mitzi, and Maria Edgeworth. “Introduction”. The Little Dog Trusty; The Orange Man; and, The Cherry Orchard, Augustan Reprints, Augustan Reprint Society, 1990, p. iii - xiii.
Butler, Marilyn, and Maria Edgeworth. “Introduction”. Castle Rackrent; and, Ennui, Penguin, 1992, pp. 1-54.
Edgeworth, Maria. Leonora. Joseph Johnson, 1806.
Edgeworth, Maria. Letters for Literary Ladies. J. Johnson, 1795.
Edgeworth, Maria et al. Letters of Maria Edgeworth and Anna Letitia Barbauld. Editor Scott, Walter Sidney, Golden Cockerel Press, 1953.
Edgeworth, Maria. Little Plays for Children. R. Hunter, 1827.
Edgeworth, Richard Lovell, and Maria Edgeworth. Memoirs of Richard Lovell Edgeworth, Esq. R. Hunter, 1820.
Edgeworth, Maria, and Richard Lovell Edgeworth. Moral Tales for Young People. J. Johnson, 1801.