A Simple Story (novel)

A Simple Story is a novel by English author and actress, Elizabeth Inchbald.[1] Published in early 1791 as an early example of a "novel of passion", it was very successful and became widely read in England and abroad.[1] It went into a second edition in March 1791.[2] It is still in print today.[3]

The novel is divided into four books, two each devoted to its two storylines.[4] The first two books follow the love story of young Miss Milner (we are never told her first name) and her guardian Dorriforth, a Roman Catholic priest, who later renounces his holy orders on inheriting an aristocratic title and marries Miss Milner. The last two books, set some seventeen or eighteen years later, follow the troubled relationship of Dorriforth (now Lord Elmwood) and his daughter Matilda, whom he has excluded from his life following his wife's adulterous affair and death.

The book touches on issues including the education of women, Catholicism, sensibility,[4] and gender roles.

Reception

The general reception of A Simple Story was favorable. Maria Edgeworth, a novelist and educational philosopher, wrote a letter to Elizabeth Inchbald, in which she warmly praised the story, saying that she had "never read any novel—I except none—I never read any novel that affected me so strongly, or that so completely possessed me with the belief in the real existence of all the people it represents".[2]

References

  1. 1 2 "Elizabeth Inchbald (English author and actress) -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia". britannica.com. Retrieved 21 August 2010.
  2. 1 2 Inchbald, Elizabeth (2007). Anna Lott, ed. A Simple Story. Broadview Editions. ISBN 978-1-55111-615-0.
  3. ↑ E.g. edition published by Oxford University Press.
  4. 1 2 "Inordinate Desire: Schooling The Senses In Elizabeth Inchbald's A Simple Story - Research and Read Books, Journals, Articles at Questia Online Library". questia.com. Retrieved 21 August 2010.
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