Novel, April 1st, 2001
An objective interest in human nature and the way it manifests itself in social custom no doubt lies behind Maria Edgeworth's liking for facts. But she never makes a general declaration of this kind. The facts in the notebooks do not coalesce with one another or provoke trains of thought. They are merely evidence of a jackdaw-like attitude towards examples of human behaviour.
-Marilyn Butler, Maria Edgeworth 239-40
The usual assignment of Edgeworth as an important "minor novelist" defines a clean, well-lighted mind specializing in tidy morality and convincing verisimilitude. She's a rational...
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