Strathallan (1816)

Summary: "Strathallan (1816) is at once a conventional and subversive romance. Alicia LeFanu is informed by the work of earlier eighteenth-century society satirists such as Frances Brooke and Frances Burney, yet at the same time her interests coincide with those of her more immediate contemporaries Scott and Austen. The novel addresses several themes of adultery, obsession and inheritance. It follows the fortunes of Matilda Melbourne who displays virtue, delicacy, and an unwavering commitment to the sometimes ruthless demands of parental authority." "LeFanu's implicit referencing of Frances Sheridan's examination of similar obligations in Memoirs of Miss Sidney Bidulph (1761) places the novel in the context of serious ongoing debates on female education and marriage. Matilda's friend and confidant, Arbella Ferrars, subverts the expectations of such an idealized femininity and is the principle means through which the sardonic and often wickedly wry observations on provincial pretensions are expressed. For Arbella's disruptive brand of coquetry. LeFanu is indebted to Frances Brooke's History of Lady Julia Mandeville and History of Emily Montegue. Notwithstanding the particular merits of this work, its intertextual relation to both earlier fictions and prevalent trends presents an intriguing basis upon which to examine the extent of the women writer's strategic engagement with the literary market."--Jacket