History of Ophelia

This is the final novel by Sarah Fielding, the second most popular English woman novelist of her time, behind only Eliza Haywood. She played an important role in the development of the English novel, and was a friend of the novelist Samuel Richardson, and sister of the novelist Henry Fielding.

This is the final novel by Sarah Fielding, the second most popular English woman novelist, behind only Eliza Haywood. She played an important role in the development of the English novel, and was a friend of the novelist Samuel Richardson, and sister of the novelist Henry Fielding.

The History of Ophelia is an often comic epistolary fiction narrated by the heroine to an unnamed female correspondent in the form of a single protracted letter. It both anticipates the Gothic novel, and responds to Samuel Richardson’s novels, especially Clarissa (1747-8). For example, the castle in Ophelia is a comic version of the Gothic ruin, inspiring derision rather than fear; and the hero, Lord Dorchester, is a parody of Lovelace, the abductor and rapist in Clarissa.

This Broadview edition includes a critical introduction and a broad selection of primary source material, including contemporary reviews, illustrations from the Novelist’s Magazine edition, and Sarah Fielding’s Remarks on Clarissa.

The History of Ophelia (unedited TOC)

Introduction

The History of Ophelia

Appendices:

1. Contemporary Reviews
2. Material added to the Dublin Edition (1763)
3. Richard Corbould’s Illustrations to the Novelist’s Magazine Edition (1785)
4. A Victorian Critic of Ophelia: Clementina Black’s Essay of 1888
5. Sarah Fielding’s Remarks on Clarissa (1749)
6. Françoise de Graffigny’s Letters Written by a Peruvian Princess (1748)
7. from Frances Burney’s Evelina (1778)