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Maria Edgeworth is largely read in literature studies classes today, but between 1800 and 1810, she was the best-recognized, and most popular novelist in the English-speaking world. A fine children's writer as well as a novelist, Maria was born in 1868 in Oxfordshire, of Anglo-Irish gentry. Greatly influenced by her powerful and genteel father, Maria was the second-oldest daughter of a family that eventually, after four marriages, grew to encompass twenty-two children. Maria's writings on the education of children were primarily composed to advance her father's ideas, only later becoming Maria's own. Perhaps best-known today for her short novel of Anglo-Irish landed gentry, Castle Rackrent, her novel Helen was a novel of "sensibility," telling the story of a simple, naturally-attractive and kind young woman, whose kindness and efforts to "save" her friends from certain trouble leads to trouble for Helen herself. Helen was Maria Edgeworth's penultimate novel, popular at its first publication in 1837. Readers of Jane Austen and other later British novelists of manners and customs will enjoy Maria Edgeworth, finding a writer of great sensitivity and insight into the human condition.… (mais)
'I who have no secrets of my own- why should I be forced to keep the secrets of another?' By sally tarbox on 23 Sept. 2012 Format: Paperback Slow to get going but by Volume 2 starts to become really gripping. Helen Stanley, left impoverished on her uncle's death, is offered a home with her childhood friend Lady Cecilia and her husband, the stern but righteous General Clarendon. Another important character is the wise Lady Davenant (Cecilia's mother) whose thoughts on morals and life are much valued by Helen - only Lady Davenant could pronounce a character 'constitutionally wilful and metaphysically vacillating'!
Problems start to arise through Cecilia's untruthful nature, where ultimately she leaves her friend to take the blame for her own doings... Helen is utterly righteous all the time, so I started to get fed up with her self sacrificing spirit. This is where for me, Maria Edgeworth cannot reach the levels of her 'rival' Jane Austen. Nonetheless turns out to be quite an exciting read! ( )
Perhaps this book could be called 'Integrity' or 'Truthfulness', because it deals fundamentally with how a minor piece of deceit can turn into systemic untruthfulness, which in turn can ruin lives. It shows how individuals can be eaten up and distorted by different kinds of deceit - false friendship, a wish to appear fashionable, an appearance of virtue masking something very different. As ever, Edgeworth's didactic purpose is accompanied by a gripping plot, as eponymous heroine Helen brushes against the dangers of extravagance, wrestles with the twin challenges of betraying a friend against betraying herself, and all at the same time is matched with a charming partner - who may or may not keep his faith when she is compromised. Fascinating - as ever.
Maria Edgeworth is largely read in literature studies classes today, but between 1800 and 1810, she was the best-recognized, and most popular novelist in the English-speaking world. A fine children's writer as well as a novelist, Maria was born in 1868 in Oxfordshire, of Anglo-Irish gentry. Greatly influenced by her powerful and genteel father, Maria was the second-oldest daughter of a family that eventually, after four marriages, grew to encompass twenty-two children. Maria's writings on the education of children were primarily composed to advance her father's ideas, only later becoming Maria's own. Perhaps best-known today for her short novel of Anglo-Irish landed gentry, Castle Rackrent, her novel Helen was a novel of "sensibility," telling the story of a simple, naturally-attractive and kind young woman, whose kindness and efforts to "save" her friends from certain trouble leads to trouble for Helen herself. Helen was Maria Edgeworth's penultimate novel, popular at its first publication in 1837. Readers of Jane Austen and other later British novelists of manners and customs will enjoy Maria Edgeworth, finding a writer of great sensitivity and insight into the human condition.
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(3.5)
2
By sally tarbox on 23 Sept. 2012
Format: Paperback
Slow to get going but by Volume 2 starts to become really gripping.
Helen Stanley, left impoverished on her uncle's death, is offered a home with her childhood friend Lady Cecilia and her husband, the stern but righteous General Clarendon. Another important character is the wise Lady Davenant (Cecilia's mother) whose thoughts on morals and life are much valued by Helen - only Lady Davenant could pronounce a character 'constitutionally wilful and metaphysically vacillating'!
Problems start to arise through Cecilia's untruthful nature, where ultimately she leaves her friend to take the blame for her own doings... Helen is utterly righteous all the time, so I started to get fed up with her self sacrificing spirit. This is where for me, Maria Edgeworth cannot reach the levels of her 'rival' Jane Austen.
Nonetheless turns out to be quite an exciting read! (