The contribution of female poets of Romantic Age

Elizabeth Inchbald (1753-1821) 

English novelist, actor, and playwright, Elizabeth Inchbald was born in a small village called Standing field near Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk, England in 1753. She was the eighth child of John Simpson, a farmer, and his wife Mary. Inchbald’s father dies early living the family to the care of her mother. Inchbald went to London in 1772 to seek her fortune on the stage. She struggled to find work because of her speech impediment. She married actor Joseph Inchbald in June 1772 and began working seriously as an actor. She made her first dramatic appearance on 4th September 1772, as the character Cordelia opposite her husband‘s King Lear in Shakespeare’s King Lear.

Plays

• Mogul Tale or the Descent of the Balloon (1784)
• Appearance is against them (1785)
• I’ll Tell You What 1785
• The Widow’s Vow 1786

Novels 

• A simple Story (1791)
• Nature and Art (1796)

Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797)

British Feminist writer Mary Wollstonecraft was born In Spatial fields, London in 1759. Her Father Edward John Wollstonecraft was a tyrannical husband, who bullied his wife, Elizabeth Dixon, into a state of servitude. A weaver by profession, her father left his work, mismanaged his share of family inheritance, and engaged in futile attempts to become a gentleperson. After her mother’s death, Wollstonecraft left home in search of her own livelihood.

Works

• Thoughts on the Education of Daughters (1787)
• Original Stories from Real Life (1788)
• Vindication of the Rights of Men (1790)
• Mary A Fiction (1788)

Mary Wollstonecraft‘s Vindication of the rights of women published in 1792 is considered as one of the earliest texts of Western Feminism. It is partly structured as a response to several works on women education and female conduct written by men during the latter half of the 18^th century, among the most significant of these was Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Emile or On Educations. She states that since childhood, women are taught to believe that they are inferior to men. They are taught to be docile and submissive, Characteristics such as meekness and self–sacrifice are included as feminine virtues, which lead to the subjugation of women.

Mary Hays (1759- 1843)

English novelist and feminist, Mary was born in Southward, Near London. She was born into a Baptist family to John and Elizabeth Hays. She lost her father when she was very young.

Works

• Cursory Remarks on an Enquiry into the expediency and propriety of public worship 1792
• Memoires of Emma Courtney (1792)
• Appeal to Men of Great Britain In Behalf Of Women (1796)

Fanny Burney

English novelist and diarist Fanny was born as Frances Burney in King’s: Lynn, Norfolk, England in 1752. She was the daughter of Dr. Charles Burney, a musical historian and Estate Sleepe, her mother died, when she was only 9. Her father later married Elizabeth Allen, The wealthy widow of King’s Lynn wine merchant, who proved to be an overbearing stepmother. She was a writer, composing odes, plays, songs, farces, and poems at an early age.

Novels 

• The History of Caroline Evelyn (1767)
• Evelina: Or The History of a Young Lady’s Entrance into the World (1778)
• Cecilia: Or, Memoires of an Heiress (1782)  

Non-fiction

• Brief reflections relative to the French Emigrants Clergy (1793)
• Memoires of Doctor Burney (1832)

Plays 

• The Witlings (1779)
• Edwy and Elgiva, (1790)
• Love and Fashion 1799
• The Woman Hater 1800-1801

Maria Edgeworth 1768 -1849

Anglo –Irish novelist Maria was born in Blackbourtan, Oxford shire, England in 1768. She was the second child of Richard Lovell Edgeworth and Anna Maria. Her father was a writer, scientist, inventor, and educationist, who married four times and had twenty-four children.

Works

• Letters for Literary Ladies (1795)
• Castle Rack-rent (1800)
• Belinda (1801)
• Leonora (1806)
• Patronage (1814)
• Harrington (1817)

Jane Austin 1775 -1817

English novelist was born at St Stevenson Rectory in Hampshire, England in 1775; she was the seventh child of reverend George Austen and Cassandra Leigh.

Works

• Sense and Sensibility (1811)
• Pride and Prejudice (1813)
• Mansfield Park (1814)
• Emma (1815)