SOURCE: Nardin, Jane. “Avoiding the Perils of the Muse: Hannah More, Didactic Literature, and Eighteenth-Century Criticism.” Papers on Language and Literature 36, no. 4 (fall 2000): 377-91.

In the following essay, Nardin evaluates More's attempts to balance the demand of her critics for morally uplifting material with the requirement of her readers for quality fiction.

In 1761 a pious teenager named Hannah More sat down to write a play. As a teacher at her sisters' school, More had noticed that few plays available in English were appropriate for performance by schoolgirls. If she could write such a drama herself, she might both advance the cause of morality and establish a reputation as a poet. The result of her labors was The Search After Happiness: A Pastoral Drama for Young Ladies, which circulated briskly in manuscript. Published in 1773, the play launched More upon a long and successful writing career.

What made so many...