Amelia Opie

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Standard Name: Opie, Amelia
Birth Name: Amelia Alderson
Married Name: Amelia Opie
Pseudonym: N.
AO , who was publishing at the end of the eighteenth century and during the earlier nineteenth century, is best known as a novelist, but was also a dramatist, poet, and short-story writer. The opinions expressed in her writings are often reactionary in gender terms, though she was brought up a Unitarian and later became a Quaker and an active Abolitionist.
Photograph of a painting of Amelia Opie by her husband, John Opie, 1798. She is depicted from the waist up, against a background that is mainly dark with a landscape scene visible in the distance. She wears a simple white dress with a V-shaped neckline that is trimmed with white ruffles. Her brown hair is pulled back, with bangs, and a braid across the top, acting as a headband. She holds a straw hat wrapped in gauzy black fabric in her lap. National Portrait Gallery.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Leisure and Society Mary Wollstonecraft
The painter John Opie did a portrait of her at this time (now in Tate Britain ) which shows her wearing a fashionable, curled white wig. This seems to have been a studio prop, since...
Textual Production Jeanette Winterson
In 1986 JW supplied an appreciative introduction for Pandora 's edition of Amelia Opie 's novel Adeline Mowbray, 1805.
Winterson, Jeanette, and Amelia Opie. “Introduction”. Adeline Mowbray, Pandora Press, p. v - viii.
Friends, Associates Helen Maria Williams
On her return to Paris after Robespierre's death, HMW and Stone lived in a house (where she held her salon) on the Quai Malaquais. After peace was announced between England and France in 1801...
Textual Production Sarah Scudgell Wilkinson
SSW published The Ruffian Boy; or, Castle of Waldemar. A Venetian Tale, which came from Amelia Opie by way of a stage adaptation in melodrama form that did well at the new Surrey Theatre
Publishing Anna Jane Vardill
The popularity of this formula had endured for generations, from Mark Akenside (The Pleasures of Imagination, 1744) and Thomas Warton (The Pleasures of Melancholy, 1747), through Samuel Rogers (The Pleasures...
Intertextuality and Influence Charlotte Smith
Sales were unexpectedly brisk. Reviews were positive and most emphasised that the stories here were true.
Smith, Charlotte. “Introduction”. The Works of Charlotte Smith, edited by Michael Garner et al., Pickering and Chatto, p. xxix - xxxvii.
xxxvi
The Critical Review, however, thought they would be equally interesting whether they should turn out to be...
Textual Production Anne Thackeray Ritchie
ATR 's A Book of Sibyls considered the lives and works of Anna Letitia Barbauld , Maria Edgeworth , Amelia Opie , and Jane Austen .
Callow, Steven D. “A Biographical Sketch of Lady Anne Thackeray Ritchie”. Virginia Woolf Quarterly, Vol.
2
, pp. 285-7.
289
politics Marion Reid
In June 1840, MR attended the General Anti-Slavery Convention in London, together with Anna Brownell Jameson , Amelia Opie , and Lady Byron . She was the only Scotswoman present.
Johnston, Judith. Anna Jameson: Victorian, Feminist, Woman of Letters. Scolar Press.
xii
Ewan, Elizabeth et al. The Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women : From the Earliest Times to 2004. Edinburgh University Press.
MR was shocked...
Education Annabella Plumptre
As an adult AP was reported by Amelia Opie to be a homebody laudably attentive to her studies, in contrast with her flightier sister Anne.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Friends, Associates Annabella Plumptre
The earliest friend associated with AP and her elder sister in literature and politics was Amelia Alderson (later Opie) .
Plumptre, Anne. “Introduction”. Something New, edited by Deborah McLeod, Broadview, p. vii - xxix.
ix-x
politics Annabella Plumptre
Three years later, in July 1794, the sisters stood on a platform with Amelia Alderson , providing support as she made an anti-Whig, pro-Jacobin speech at Norwich.
Plumptre, Anne. “Introduction”. Something New, edited by Deborah McLeod, Broadview, p. vii - xxix.
ix-x
Friends, Associates Annabella Plumptre
On that November date Annabella made an attempt, by letter, to bring together their friend Amelia Alderson (later Opie) with Mary Hays . (Anne had already written to the same purpose in March, but not...
Friends, Associates Anne Plumptre
The earliest friend associated with AP and her sister Bell in literature and politics was Amelia Alderson (later Opie) .
Plumptre, Anne. “Introduction”. Something New, edited by Deborah McLeod, Broadview, p. vii - xxix.
ix-x
politics Anne Plumptre
Three years later, in July 1794, both sisters stood on a platform with Amelia Alderson , providing support as she made an anti-Whig, pro-Jacobin speech at Norwich.
Plumptre, Anne. “Introduction”. Something New, edited by Deborah McLeod, Broadview, p. vii - xxix.
ix-x
Friends, Associates Anne Plumptre
Their friends included Eliza Fenwick , Helen Maria Williams , Susannah Taylor , Mary Hays , Amelia Opie , Thomas Holcroft , John Thelwall , and other radicals. AP supported Thelwall's local electioneering, and Ann Jebb

Timeline

4 April 1788: At about the time that he lost his religious...

Writing climate item

4 April 1788

At about the time that he lost his religious faith, William Godwin began keeping a diary, which he continued almost daily until 26 March 1836, only two weeks before he died.

After 1 February 1793: An organisation calling itself the Friends...

National or international item

After 1 February 1793

An organisation calling itself the Friends of Peace began campaigning in tracts and pamphlets against the war with France (declared on this day).

June 1793: An enterprising printer and freemason, John...

Writing climate item

June 1793

An enterprising printer and freemason, John Wharlton Bunney , put out the first number of The Free-Mason's Magazine, or General and Complete Library.

1 April 1819: The Peace Society (founded in 1816) began...

National or international item

1 April 1819

The Peace Society (founded in 1816) began publishing a periodical, The Herald of Peace.

1868: Emily Taylor (1795-18), who is remembered...

Writing climate item

1868

Emily Taylor (1795-18), who is remembered for books connected with her school-teaching career, published Memories of some Contemporary Poets, with Selections from their Writings, with a good representation of women among her subjects (from...

February 1895: Grant Allen published his best-selling novel...

Writing climate item

February 1895

Grant Allen published his best-selling novel entitled The Woman Who Did; it was Keynotes Series no. 8.

May 1992: The Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century British...

Women writers item

May 1992

The Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century British Women Writers Association held its first annual conference. Thereafter the conference was held at a different American location each year.
Parker, Pamela Corpron. “A Conference of Our Own: on the 20th Anniversary of the BWWA”. The Female Spectator, Vol.
16
, No. 1, p. 6.
6

Texts

Opie, Amelia. Adeline Mowbray. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1805.
Opie, Amelia. Adeline Mowbray. Editors King, Shelley and John B. Pierce, Oxford University Press, 1999.
Opie, Amelia. Dangers of Coquetry. William Lane, 1790.
Opie, Amelia. Detraction Displayed. Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green; S. Wilkin, 1828.
Opie, Amelia. Elegy to the Memory of the late Duke of Bedford. T. N. Longman, 1802.
Opie, Amelia. Illustrations of Lying, in all its Branches. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, 1825.
Winterson, Jeanette, and Amelia Opie. “Introduction”. Adeline Mowbray, Pandora Press, 1986, p. v - viii.
Opie, Amelia. “Introduction”. Adeline Mowbray, edited by Shelley King and John B. Pierce, Oxford University Press, 1999, p. i - xxix.
Opie, Amelia. “Introduction”. The Collected Poems of Amelia Alderson Opie, edited by Shelley King and John B. Pierce, Oxford University Press, 2009, p. xxxvii - lxx.
Opie, Amelia. Lays for the Dead. Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longman, 1834.
Opie, Amelia. Letter to Elizabeth Fry.
Opie, Amelia. Madeline. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1822.
Opie, Amelia, and John Opie. “Memoir”. Lectures on Painting, edited by Prince Hoare and Prince Hoare, Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, 1809.
Opie, Amelia, and Cecilia Brightwell. Memorials of the Life of Amelia Opie. Fletcher and Alexander, 1854.
Opie, Amelia. New Tales. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1818.
Opie, Amelia. Poems. T. N. Longman and O. Rees, 1802.
Opie, Amelia. Simple Tales. Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, 1806.
Opie, Amelia. Tales of Real Life. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1813.
Opie, Amelia. Tales of the Heart. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1820.
Opie, Amelia. Tales of the Pemberton Family. Harvey and Darton; S. Wilkin, 1825.
Opie, Amelia. Temper; or, Domestic Scenes. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1812.
Opie, Amelia. The Black Man’s Lament. Harvey and Darton, 1826.
Opie, Amelia. The Collected Poems of Amelia Alderson Opie. Editors King, Shelley and John B. Pierce, Oxford University Press, 2009.
Opie, Amelia. The Father and Daughter. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1801.
Wilkinson, Sarah Scudgell, and Amelia Opie. The Ruffian Boy. J. Bailey, 1800.