Athenæum. J. Lection.
1788 (1862): 151
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.
Connections
| Connections | Author name Sort ascending | Excerpt |
|---|---|---|
| Birth | Henry Fielding | He was the elder brother of Sarah Fielding
, and second cousin of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
(their grandfathers were brothers). |
| Literary responses | Amelia B. Edwards | Henry Fothergill Chorley
in the Athenæum faulted the book as being something close to a textbook under the guise of entertainment. Young people, he argued, resent such books as engines of oppression. |
| Reception | Maria Edgeworth | ME
had more lasting influence than her predecessors on the development of the girls'-school-story tradition in English, though Sarah Fielding
's The Governess stands at the head of the genre. |
| Textual Production | Mary Collyer | An anonymous novel appeared entitled The History of Betty Barnes: it has sometimes been attributed to Sarah Fielding
, but is actually by MC
, as literary historian Joyce Grossman
has shown. Grossman, Joyce. “Social Protest and the Mid-Century Novel: Mary Collyer’s <span data-tei-ns-tag="tei_title" data-tei-title-lvl=‘m’>The History of Betty Barnes</span>”;. Eighteenth-Century Women: Studies in their Lives, Work, and Culture, edited by Linda V. Troost, Vol. 1 , pp. 165-84. 165 Grossman, Joyce. “Social Protest and the Mid-Century Novel: Mary Collyer’s <span data-tei-ns-tag="tei_title" data-tei-title-lvl=‘m’>The History of Betty Barnes</span>”;. Eighteenth-Century Women: Studies in their Lives, Work, and Culture, edited by Linda V. Troost, Vol. 1 , pp. 165-84. |
| Literary responses | Mary Collyer | Brian Alderson
noted that this may be the earliest known publication of secular stories for children in English, and called it the pearl of the Ludford Box— Immel, Andrea. “<span data-tei-ns-tag="tei_title" data-tei-title-lvl=‘m’>A Christmass-Box</span>. Mary Homebred and Mary Collyer: Connecting the Dots”. Children’s Books History Society Newsletter, No. 94, pp. 1-4. 1 |
| Textual Production | Jane Collier | Margaret Collier
suggests that JC
wrote an unfinished play. In her sister's commonplace-book, she remarks on a play featuring a character who is always reading other people's thoughts (I know you think me unreasonable... |
| 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, 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, p. vii - xli. xxxix Bree, Linda. Sarah Fielding. Twayne. 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, pp. 141-61. 145 and n26 |
| Textual Production | Jane Collier | JC
wrote to Samuel Richardson
to explain why he ought not to make a change he wished to in Sarah Fielding
's The Governess. Fielding, Henry, and Sarah Fielding. The Correspondence of Henry and Sarah Fielding. Editors Battestin, Martin C. and Clive T. Probyn, Clarendon Press. xxix-xxx |
| Author summary | Jane Collier | JC
was a remarkably innovative and experimental prose-writer of the mid-eighteenth century. She produced one anti-conduct-book, one collaborative novel (written together with Sarah Fielding
), a remarkable commonplace-book (only recently discovered), and trenchant literary-critical comments... |
| Friends, Associates | Jane Collier | |
| Textual Features | Jane Collier | It vividly reflects the liveliness and originality of JC
's mind, her interest in books (from the classics and the Bible to very recent publications), education, women's issues, family life, and in moral interpretation of... |
| Textual Features | Jane Collier | The commonplace-book throws light on Collier's other extant writings as well. A casual mention of what Sally calls the Turba proves definitively that at least one neologism in The Cry stemmed not from her but... |
| Textual Production | Jane Collier | The second of these criticisms was a letter in answer to Edward Cave
, who had published in the Gentleman's Magazine the argument of a Swiss professor, Albrecht von Haller
, that Clarissa was wrong... |
| Textual Production | Jane Collier | The case for JC
's part-authorship with Sarah Fielding
in The Cry (finished by 19 November 1753, published on 2 March 1754) Fielding, Henry, and Sarah Fielding. The Correspondence of Henry and Sarah Fielding. Editors Battestin, Martin C. and Clive T. Probyn, Clarendon Press. xx, 129n2 |
| Textual Production | Jane Collier | This extraordinary book is discussed in Orlando under Sarah Fielding
, though without prejudice to the belief that Collier's part in it is crucial. |
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Texts
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