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Memoirs of Emma Courtney: Enriched edition. A Revolutionary Tale of Love, Loss, and Defiance in 18th-Century Society

Name: Memoirs of Emma Courtney: Enriched edition. A Revolutionary Tale of Love, Loss, and Defiance in 18th-Century Society
Rating: 3.08 (573 reviews)
Author: Mary Hays

Mary Hays January 1, 1796

3.08 573 Ratings

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Synopsis

Memoirs of Emma Courtney is an epistolary novel by Mary Hays. Partly autobiographical, the story is based on the author’s own one-sided love for William Frend, an English clergyman, social reformer and writer. “Mr and Mrs Melmoth, my uncle and aunt, married young, purely from motives of affection. Mr Melmoth had an active, ardent mind, great benevolence of heart, a sweet and chearful temper, and a liberal manner of thinking, though with few advantages of he possessed, also, a sanguine disposition, a warm heart, a generous spirit, and an integrity which was never called in question. Mrs Melmoth’s frame was delicate and fragile; she had great sensibility, quickness of perception, some anxiety of temper, and a refined and romantic manner of thinking, acquired from the perusal of the old romances, a large quantity of which, belonging to a relation, had, in the early periods of her youth, been accidentally deposited in a spare room in her father’s house. These qualities were mingled with a devotional spirit, a little bordering on fanatacism. My uncle did not exactly resemble an Orlando, or an Oroondates, but he was fond of reading; and having the command of a ship in the West India trade, had, during his voyages in fine weather, time to indulge in this propensity; by which means he was a tolerable proficient in the belles lettres, and could, on occasion, quote Shakespeare, scribble poetry, and even philosophize with Pope and Bolingbroke.”

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