ABSTRACT

Maria Edgeworth’s epistolary novel Leonora, published in 1806, was one of her most unpopular works. To this day, it is the most under-examined novel she wrote during her period of peak popularity. Leonora tells a story of adultery that brings the dangers posed by Napoleonic France into the English domestic realm. Lady Olivia, returning to England from France, is invited by Lady Leonora to stay at L Castle, where she soon embarks on an affair with her friend’s husband. Edgeworth models this adulterous plot on Germaine de Staël’s Delphine, and she blends her mimicry of de Staël’s novel with an extensive critique of Mary Wollstonecraft’s The Wrongs of Woman; or, Maria. The target of Edgeworth’s mockery and criticism is radical sensibility, particularly its moralization of individual feeling and support for adultery and divorce. Edgeworth uses Leonora not just to support marriage and domestic attachment, but also to wrest female intellectuality back from Wollstonecraft’s tarnished reputation. Through writing a novel that debates with de Staël and Wollstonecraft, Edgeworth reclaims the female intellectual as a figure who promotes social stability; and she shows how morally strong, rational women operating from within the domestic realm can contribute to national security.

摘要

玛丽亚·埃奇沃思（Maria Edgeworth）的书信小说《列奥诺拉（Leonora）》于1806年出版，是她最受欢迎的作品之一。时至今日，这是她在鼎盛时期写得最多的小说。列奥诺拉（Leonora）讲述了一个通奸的故事，该故事将拿破仑（Napoleonic）法国带来的危险带入了英国家庭领域。从法国返回英国的奥利维亚夫人受莱昂诺拉夫人邀请留在L城堡，不久她便与朋友的丈夫外遇。埃奇沃思以杰曼·德·斯泰尔的《海豚》为原型，仿制了这个通奸的情节，她将对德·斯泰尔的小说的模仿与对玛丽·沃尔斯通克拉夫特的《女人的错》的广泛批评相结合。或者，玛丽亚。埃奇沃思的嘲讽和批评的目标是激进的情感，尤其是将个人感情道德化以及对通奸和离婚的支持。埃奇沃思利用莱昂诺拉（Leonora）不仅支持婚姻和家庭依恋，还从沃斯通克拉夫特（Wollstonecraft）受损的声誉中夺回了女性知识分子。通过写一部小说，与德·斯塔尔和沃斯通克拉夫特进行辩论，埃奇沃思将女性知识分子重新塑造为促进社会稳定的人物。她还展示了在国内领域开展道德操守，有理智的妇女如何为国家安全做出贡献。