A FEELING MIND: THE EARLY LITERARY CAREER OF ELIZABETH INCHBALD (1753-1821) (WOMEN'S NOVELS).
Item
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Title
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A FEELING MIND: THE EARLY LITERARY CAREER OF ELIZABETH INCHBALD (1753-1821) (WOMEN'S NOVELS).
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Identifier
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AAI8501154
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identifier
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8501154
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Creator
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MACHESKI, CECILIA.
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Contributor
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Robert Adams Day
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Date
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1984
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Literature, English
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Abstract
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The focus of this study is on the early part of Inchbald's long career, the years from her first appearance on the stage until 1791, when A Simple Story was published. There are three parts: a brief biographical section, a survey of Inchbald's apprentice years as an actress and playwright, and, finally, a detailed examination of her best novel, A Simple Story. The conclusion summarizes her career after 1791 with emphasis on Nature and Art and The British Theatre and considers the reasons for Inchbald's neglect by literary historians. These sections are all focussed on a central concern, namely, to understand the situation of this one successful woman writer and by extension to learn more about the conditions of authorship for other women in the late eighteenth century. Mrs. Inchbald's "anxious hope" was described by one of her friends as seeking "some useful moral for the feeling mind." I use these phrases to examine such terms as "jacobin novel" and "humanitarian drama" as they apply to her work. This study is neither a definitive biography nor an exhaustive critical analysis of the career of the actress, playwright, novelist, critic, and journalist who flourished from 1785 to 1815. It is an examination of the sources of one woman's art, and the financial rewards it yielded. The concept of the "feeling mind" provides the critical context for measuring her growth and evaluating her achievement, especially in A Simple Story, as well as connecting her to other women writers of the turbulent and curious decades that mark the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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English
