Edgeworth’s Belinda (1801) makes an interesting entry in the development of the English novel. Before readers have the chance to examine the Table of Contents, Edgeworth remarks in her Advertisement that she is presenting to her public a “Moral Tale—the author not wishing to acknowledge a Novel.” Attributing the qualities of “folly, errour, and vice” to the novel, she laments that her fellow novelists lack the talents of Elizabeth Inchbald or Frances Burney.
Edgeworth's Lady Delacour
Some of Edgeworth’s reviewers noted their preference for the character of Lady Delacour over that of the eponymous heroine. In fact, in Edgeworth’s original sketch, she planned to kill off Lady Delacour halfway through the novel and to focus more on Hervey and Belinda’s development.
In the published version, Belinda must make her way through the world of the fashionable elite, encountering various suitors along the way and learning to form her own opinions as she witnesses Lady Delacour’s unhappy marriage and hears her cautionary tale in the first part of the book.
Indeed, Edgeworth rejects sensibility as a worth trait in a heroine and instead promotes her heroine's development as a rational, well-educated young woman ("Belinda had cultivated tastes, an active understanding, a knowledge of literature, the power and the habit of conducting herself").
At the end of this narrative, Lady Delacour reveals a dreadful wound to her chest and confides that she is dying of cancer. However, Lady Delacour is redeemed at the end of the novel and reconciled to her husband, and all the characters receive a happy ending.
Belinda's Courtship Narrative
Like Jane Austen’s heroines, much of Belinda’s fate depends on her marrying well, but like Elizabeth Bennett, Belinda rejects a wealthy but foolish suitor (Sir Philip, a baronet) and is determined to marry on her own terms. She initially accepts the hand of Mr. Vincent, a wealthy Creole gentleman, but breaks the engagement when she learns of his fondness for gambling.
Meanwhile, Clarence Hervey, our hero, is influenced by the writings of Rousseau and possesses a great affection for Rousseau’s heroine Sophia (see Wollstonecraft’s notes on the pernicious effects of Rousseau and his writing); he forms the “romantic project of educating a wife for himself.”
His attempt to make a naïve, sheltered young girl, Virginia, into the ideal bride, almost ends disastrously when he realizes he doesn’t love Virginia but must agree to marry her anyway to save her from scandal. Lady Delacour steps in to save the day, and Belinda and Clarence are reunited while Virginia also finds a suitable husband.
References:
Edgeworth, Maria. Belinda. (1801). Ed. Kathryn J. Kirkpatrick. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1999.
Sara Dustin - Sara Dustin is a Ph.D. student and university instructor. As an undergraduate, she double majored in English and history at Presbyterian ...
