Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Sarah Fielding
-
Standard Name: Fielding, Sarah
Birth Name: Sarah Fielding
Pseudonym: A Lady
Pseudonym: The Author of David Simple
SF
, best known as a mid-eighteenth-century novelist, tried a range of other genres as well: history, criticism, a play, a translation, and a landmark children's book which is both a work of pedagogy and commonly billed as the first school story for girls. Her reputation is gradually emerging from the shadow of her brother Henry
's and enabling recognition of her status as a woman of letters, and her pivotal position in the history of the novel.
He was the elder brother of Sarah Fielding
, and second cousin of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
(their grandfathers were brothers).
Family and Intimate relationships
Jane Collier
JC
was living with Sarah Fielding
in Beauford Buildings, London.
Scholars differ as to whether this was early or late in the year.
Keymer, Tom. “Jane Collier, Reader of Richardson, and the Fire Scene in <span data-tei-ns-tag="tei_title" data-tei-title-lvl=‘m’>Clarissa</span>”;. New Essays on Samuel Richardson, edited by Albert J. Rivero, Macmillan; St Martin’s Press, 1996, pp. 141-61.
145 and n26
Sabor, Peter, and Sarah Fielding. “Introduction”. The Adventures of David Simple and Volume the Last, University Press of Kentucky, 1998, p. vii - xli.
xxxix
Bree, Linda. Sarah Fielding. Twayne, 1996.
xii
Keymer, Tom. “Jane Collier, Reader of Richardson, and the Fire Scene in <span data-tei-ns-tag="tei_title" data-tei-title-lvl=‘m’>Clarissa</span>”;. New Essays on Samuel Richardson, edited by Albert J. Rivero, Macmillan; St Martin’s Press, 1996, pp. 141-61.
In her local life, however, MJ
felt isolated. On one occasion she told Martha Lovelace (later Beauclerk) that her only friend was a young Student of Oxford—
Jones, Mary. Miscellanies in Prose and Verse. Dodsley, 1750.
375
probably not an intellectually stimulating friendship...
SS
formed a friendship with Sarah Fielding
at Bath.
Rizzo, Betty, and Sarah Scott. “Introduction”. The History of Sir George Ellison, University Press of Kentucky, 1996, p. ix - xlv.
xvii
Friends, Associates
Sarah Scott
When these two settled at Batheaston, they became part of a circle of women that included friends they had already made: Sarah Fielding, Elizabeth Cutts
, Margaret Riggs
(whose daughter was to continue the...
Friends, Associates
Charlotte Lennox
She met Sarah Fielding
at Richardson's house, and became friendly also with Henry Fielding
, Saunders Welch
(the philanthropist, who later offered her employment), and Lord Orrery
. She was presumably the Mrs Lenox with...
Friends, Associates
Jane Collier
JC
was a lifelong friend of Sarah Fielding
and her brother Henry
(who famously mentioned in a book inscription her understanding more than Female, mixed with virtues almost more than human),
Londry, Michael. “Our dear Miss Jenny Collier”. Times Literary Supplement, pp. 13-14.
14
and of...
Intertextuality and Influence
Elizabeth Inchbald
The story is set in London, where a brother and sister are starving, and are helped by a man who appears benevolent but actually hopes to seduce the sister. The pair turn out not...
Intertextuality and Influence
Mary Ann Radcliffe
MAR
focuses on the impossibility for middle-class women of earning an honest living, and the gradual male takeover of traditionally female jobs. She laments the fact that men no longer offer women adequate protection, and...
Intertextuality and Influence
Mary Lamb
M. B.'s purpose in story-telling is not moral improvement but making little girls feel better (the youngest is seven): cheering them up since, newly sent to boarding school, they are crying for home; alleviating their...
Intertextuality and Influence
Phebe Gibbes
She supplies a kind of cast list of characters, and says she has written A Dramatic Novel
Gibbes, Phebe. The Niece; or, The History of Sukey Thornby. F. Noble, 1788.
prelims
largely in dialogue, without the interruptions of Said he and Said she.
Gibbes, Phebe. The Niece; or, The History of Sukey Thornby. F. Noble, 1788.
prelims
(In claiming the novelty...
Intertextuality and Influence
Elizabeth Sarah Gooch
ESG
quotes on her title-page from James Hammond
and early in her first volume from Samuel Johnson
(no book was ever spared out of tenderness to the author).
Gooch, Elizabeth Sarah. The Life of Mrs Gooch. Printed for the authoress and sold by C. and G. Kearsley, 1792.
1: 11
The quotation from...
Intertextuality and Influence
Sarah Green
Literary discussion spills over from the preface into the text. The Rev. Edward Marsham, surprisingly for one of his profession, finds Hannah More
's Coelebs too religious; he prefers canonical novelists who teach virtue and...
Timeline
By February 1752
James Harris
(friend of Sarah Fielding
and Jane Collier
) published Hermes: or, A Philosophical Inquiry concerning Language and Universal Grammar.
1774
The British Novelist: Or, Virtue and Vice in Miniature was published in twelve volumes of abridged texts by Sarah
and Henry Fielding
, Richardson
, Smollett
, and Lennox
.
1818
The successful children's writerElizabeth Sandham
published The School-Fellows, a Moral Tale, which devotes a chapter to commemoration of Princess Charlotte
(who had died on 6 November 1817).
By Christmas 1869
Francis Galton
, mathematician, scientist, and eugenicist, published Hereditary Genius: An Enquiry into its Laws and Consequences,
Texts
Fielding, Sarah. Familiar Letters between the Principal Characters in David Simple. Priinted for the author and sold by A. Millar, 1747.
Sabor, Peter, and Sarah Fielding. “Introduction”. The Adventures of David Simple and Volume the Last, University Press of Kentucky, 1998, p. vii - xli.
Fielding, Sarah. Remarks on Clarissa, Addressed to the Author. J. Robinson, 1749.
Fielding, Sarah. The Adventures of David Simple. A. Millar, 1744.
Fielding, Sarah. The Adventures of David Simple, Volume the Last. A. Millar, 1753.
Fielding, Henry, and Sarah Fielding. The Correspondence of Henry and Sarah Fielding. Editors Battestin, Martin C. and Clive T. Probyn, Clarendon Press, 1993.
Fielding, Sarah, and Jane Collier. The Cry. R. and J. Dodsley, 1754.
Fielding, Sarah. The Governess. A. Millar, 1749.
Fielding, Sarah, and Jill E. Grey. The Governess. Oxford University Press, 1968.
Fielding, Sarah. The Histories of Some of the Penitents in the Magdalen-House. John Rivington and J. Dodsley, 1760.
Fielding, Sarah. The History of Ophelia. R. Baldwin, 1760.
Fielding, Sarah. The History of the Countess of Dellwyn. A. Millar, 1759.
Fielding, Sarah. The Lives of Cleopatra and Octavia. Printed for the author and sold by A. Millar; J. Dodsley, and J. Leake, 1757.
Fielding, Sarah. The Lives of Cleopatra and Octavia. Editor Johnson, Christopher Dyer, Bucknell University Press and Associated University Presses, 1994.
Fielding, Sarah. Xenophon’s Memoirs of Socrates, With the Defence of Socrates. A. Millar, 1762.
