Frances Sheridan

Conrad Brunstrom (Maynooth University)
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Frances Sheridan was born Frances Chamberlain in Dublin in 1724. Her father, the Rev. Philip Chamberlain, an Anglican pluralist clergyman, regarded literacy as a worse than superfluous female accomplishment and forbade her to learn to read or write. This edict (which anticipated Anthony Absolute's similarly impotent judgement in

The Rivals

) had the pleasantly predictable result of inspiring her, with the connivance of her brothers, to become a voracious surreptitious reader and author. The earliest product of this passionate subterfuge was a two-volume romance

Eugenia and Adelaide

, first published some years after her death in 1791. It was to be the encouraging response of the elderly Samuel Richardson to this manuscript, that persuaded her to embark upon

The Memoirs of Miss Sidney

1145 words

Citation: Brunstrom, Conrad. "Frances Sheridan". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 25 November 2001 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4054, accessed 19 March 2024.]

4054 Frances Sheridan 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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