Memoirs of Miss Sidney Bidulph

About This Book

Published in 1761, Memoirs of Miss Sidney Bidulph is an epistolary novel by the Irish writer Frances Sheridan (1724-1766), mother of playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan. The novel tells of a virtuous young woman whose unwavering adherence to moral codes leads not to reward but to relentless suffering. Strongly influenced by Richardson's Clarissa, Sheridan extends the exploration of female distress into the realm of marriage, exposing contradictions faced by women who tried to live according to eighteenth-century standards. Richardson himself was so impressed he arranged its publication. Essential for scholars of eighteenth-century women's writing and the sentimental novel tradition.

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