Elizabeth Inchbald's Reputation:

A Publishing and Reception History

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Ben P Robertson

The History of the Book

As an author who lived during a historical period in which women writers were considered, at best, frivolous or, at worst, immoral, Inchbald worked carefully to mould her own reputation in conservative, dignified terms. As a practicing Catholic living in an intolerant atmosphere of Anglican anxiety over challenges to the official church and government, she had even more incentive to present a public image that was eminently moral and that – at least ostensibly– supported established, conservative codes of conduct. In reality, however, Inchbald seems to have held liberal views and is easily aligned to more radical writers such as William Godwin.

Through an examination of her complete works and public response to them, Robertson gauges the extent of Inchbald’s reputation as the dignified “Mrs Inchbald”, as well as providing a clear sense of what it meant to be a female Romantic writer. In recent decades, the prose and dramatic writings of women like Inchbald have generated considerable scholarly interest, both in their own right and for their connection with other important Romantic figures. This project aims to expand the scope of that scholarly inquiry.

Readership

Literature, Theatre History, Romanticism and Women's Studies

Contents

Introduction: Women Writers in the Romantic Period
1 Inchbald’s Life and Reputation
2 Producing Drama for the Masses
3 Novels that Masquerade as Simple Stories
4 Literary Criticism and the Stage
Conclusion

Related titles

• Eighteenth-Century Women Playwrights
• Inchbald, Hawthorne and the Romantic Moral Romance: Little Histories and Neutral Territories
• Lives of Shakespearian Actors, Part II: Edmund Kean, Sarah Siddons and Harriet Smithson by their Contemporaries
• Mary Shelley's Literary Lives and Other Writings
• The Diaries of Elizabeth Inchbald
• The Plays of William Godwin
• The Political and Philosophical Writings of William Godwin

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