Maria Edgeworth, The Parent's Assistant

Sharon Jude Murphy (St. Patrick's College, Drumcondra)
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Maria Edgeworth (1768-1849) published her first collection of tales for children under the title

The Parent's Assistant

in 1796. In his preface to the work, her father, Richard Lovell Edgeworth (1744-1817), stressed that it was in the first place predicated upon the observation of real-life children and contained lessons that had been faithfully drawn from real-life experience. “It seems … a very easy task to write for children”, he remarked, but “[t]hose only who have been interested in the education of a family … can feel the dangers and difficulties of such an undertaking” (10: 1-2). Richard Lovell Edgeworth's point was that his daughter was peculiarly suited to write for children because she

knew

children and, indeed, the tales that make up

The Parent's Assistant

are in…

1069 words

Citation: Murphy, Sharon Jude. "The Parent's Assistant". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 31 May 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=7339, accessed 19 March 2024.]

7339 The Parent's Assistant 3 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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