Elizabeth Sarah Gooch

ESG 's writing career began in the later eighteenth century with a sizeable pamphlet justifying her role in the quarrel with her estranged husband which had landed her in debtors' prison. From this she moved on to further life-writing (courtesan autobiography), published poetry, further works which blend autobiography with fiction and essay-type material, and finally to sentimental novels. Self-vindication and the need for money were her chief motives, but she has a real gift for expressing both mood and argument. Reviewers gradually shifted over the course of her career from sympathy to contempt.