Frances Sheridan

Conrad Brunstrom (Maynooth University)

Ed. by Janet Todd, University of Cambridge
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.05: English Writing and Culture from the Glorious Revolution to the French Revolution, 1689-1789.
Vol. editors: Paul Baines (University of Liverpool), Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Pat Rogers (University of South Florida), Nicholas Seager (University of Keele)

Dates

Born 1724
Died 1766
Activity 1743-1766

Places

Born in Ireland, Republic of (Eire)
Active in England

Activities

Primary

Novelist
Playwright / Dramatist

Resources

Sheridan's Works

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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

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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 21 November 2024.]

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