English Women of Letters: Biographical Sketches |
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Adeline admiration amiable Aphra Aphra Behn appeared beauty Behn Burney's Castle Castle Rackrent Cecilia character Charlotte Smith charm coarseness cried d'Arblay daughter death delightful Delvile Dorriforth English Women Evelina Fanny father faults favour feel fiction folly fond Gaston de Blondeville genius grace handsome happy heart hero heroines honour human husband Inchbald knew Lady Morgan lived Lord Elmwood lover Madame Madame de Genlis Madame de Staël Maria Edgeworth marriage married mind Miss Austen Miss Burney Miss Edgeworth Miss Milner Miss Woodley mother Mysteries of Udolpho nature never noble novel O'Donnel Opie Oroonoko Owenson painted passion poor Rackrent Radcliffe Radcliffe's Rayland romance scenes Sir Walter Sir Walter Scott sister sorrow spirit story strange tale tell temper tender terror thought tion told truth Walter Scott whilst wife Wild Irish Girl woman Women of Letters wonderful write wrote young
Popular passages
Page 250 - That young lady had a talent for describing the involvements and feelings and characters of ordinary life, which is to me the most wonderful I ever met with. The Big Bow-wow strain I can do myself like any now going ; but the exquisite touch, which renders ordinary commonplace things and characters interesting, from the truth of the description and the sentiment, is denied to me.
Page 211 - Without being so presumptuous as to hope to emulate the rich humour, pathetic tenderness, and admirable tact, which pervade the works of my accomplished friend, I felt that something might be attempted for my own country of the same kind with that which Miss Edgeworth so fortunately achieved for Ireland...
Page 114 - I waked one morning, in the beginning of last June, from a dream, of which, all I could recover was, that I had thought myself in an ancient castle (a very natural dream for a head filled like mine with Gothic story), and that on the uppermost banister of a great staircase I saw a gigantic hand in armour. In the evening I sat down, and began to write, without knowing in the least what I intended to say or relate.
Page 250 - Cecilia," or " Camilla," or " Belinda" ; or, in short, only some work in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and humor, are conveyed to the world in the best chosen language.
Page 115 - ... great staircase I saw a gigantic hand in armour. In the evening I sat down and began to write, without knowing in the least what I intended to say or relate. The work grew on my hands, and I grew fond of it...
Page 261 - I ought to have mentioned earlier, that it is the particular advice and recommendation of the very noble lady whom I have the honour of calling patroness. Twice has she condescended to give me her opinion (unasked too!) on this subject; and it was but the very Saturday night before I left...
Page 26 - What a knowledge of the human heart! Well might a critical judge of writing say, as he did to me, that your late brother's knowledge of it was not (fine writer as he was) comparable to yours. His was but as the knowledge of the outside of a clock-work machine, while yours was that of all the finer springs and movements of the inside.
Page 57 - Madame d'Arblay, the celebrated authoress of ' Evelina ' and ' Cecilia,' an elderly lady with no remains of personal beauty, but with a simple and gentle manner, and pleasing expression of countenance, and apparently quick feelings. She told me she had wished to see two persons — myself, of course, being one, the other George Canning. This was really a compliment to be pleased with — a nice little handsome pat of butter made up by a neat-handed Phillis of a dairymaid, instead of the grease fit...
Page 82 - Therefore if any man can shew any just cause, why they may not lawfully be joined together, let him now speak, or else hereafter for ever hold his peace.
Page 29 - For as the Merit of this Work consists in a vast Penetration into human Nature, a deep and profound Discernment of all the Mazes, Windings and Labyrinths, which perplex the Heart of Man to such a degree, that he is himself often incapable of seeing through them...