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Belinda
'It is singular, that my having spent a winter with one of the most dissipated women in England should have sobered my mind so completely.'
Maria Edgeworth's 1801 novel, Belinda , is an absorbing, sometimes provocative, tale of social and domestic life among the English aristocracy and gentry. The heroine of the title, only too conscious of being 'advertised' on the marriage market, grows in moral maturity as she seeks to balance self-fulfilment with achieving material success. Among those whom she encounters are the socialite Lady Delacour, whose brilliance and wit hide a tragic secret, the radical feminist Harriot Freke, the handsome and wealthy Creole gentleman Mr Vincent, and the mercurial Clarence Hervey, whose misguided idealism has led him into a series of near-catastrophic mistakes. In telling their story Maria Edgeworth gives a vivid picture of life in late eighteenth-century London, skilfully showing both the attractions of leisured society and its darker side, and blending drawing-room comedy with challenging themes involving serious illness, obsession, slavery and interracial marriage.
Maria Edgeworth's 1801 novel, Belinda , is an absorbing, sometimes provocative, tale of social and domestic life among the English aristocracy and gentry. The heroine of the title, only too conscious of being 'advertised' on the marriage market, grows in moral maturity as she seeks to balance self-fulfilment with achieving material success. Among those whom she encounters are the socialite Lady Delacour, whose brilliance and wit hide a tragic secret, the radical feminist Harriot Freke, the handsome and wealthy Creole gentleman Mr Vincent, and the mercurial Clarence Hervey, whose misguided idealism has led him into a series of near-catastrophic mistakes. In telling their story Maria Edgeworth gives a vivid picture of life in late eighteenth-century London, skilfully showing both the attractions of leisured society and its darker side, and blending drawing-room comedy with challenging themes involving serious illness, obsession, slavery and interracial marriage.
560 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1801
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About the author
Maria Edgeworth
1,748books198followersMaria Edgeworth was an Anglo-Irish gentry-woman, born in Oxfordshire and later resettling in County Longford. She eventually took over the management of her father's estate in Ireland and dedicated herself to writing novels that encouraged the kind treatment of Irish tenants and the poor by their landlords.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 303 reviews
May 16, 2024
Before Jane Austen and after Fanny Burney (who I have never read ...yet) there was popular, influential Maria Edgeworth, these ladies and others, dominated English literature of the late 18th century and early 19th, women especially young girls enjoyed their novels with stories of improbable romances, even more unnerving adventures with evil villains, high society and all the corruption underneath the facade of gentle, respectable people, doing glamorous things and manners to match the surface. Born in England Miss Edgeworth was raised in Ireland on her wealthy father's estate, in the ruling Anglo minority , who she disliked, that colonized the troubled land...Young Belinda Portman circa 20, is an orphan raised by her aunt Mrs. Stanhope, in Bath, a well known matchmaker, she has married Miss Portman's female cousins to rich men... six in total... nevertheless they are not happy. Her old aunt is tired, ill, wants to retire after getting rid of just one more niece, Belinda, ( with a mind of her own) she believes will not be obviously difficult, so Mrs. Stanhope after giving ...
plenty of unwanted advice, sends the unsophisticated, however, bright, pretty girl to a friend's house, the notorious "Lady of Fashion"...Lady Delacour in London to meet eligible bachelors, that is, with money. And recommends to her quiet, obedient niece, so far, a Mr. Clarence Hervey, she saw in town, a man many ladies covet, but never captured his heart, handsome, young, knowledgeable, a delight..
to listen to his amusing stories and conversations. Belinda, Clarence...
are very drawn together , at their first encounter, cannot stop looking... sparks fly... Don't need to say he has plenty of cash...but there is a catch, not the marrying kind, with some dark secrets, ( like every main character) in his background he will not reveal. His not very respectable friends make fun of Belinda's aunt, her cousins-
and she too, at a party they don't see her almost hidden, in an out of the way location...Clarence seems to agree with their mocking views, the shocked Belinda faints on the floor...The excitement entertains the seen it all Lady Delacour, telling her new close "friend" that she understands, the Lady herself has many acquaintances, but no real friends...a few female enemies...people are disloyal, and love to disparage others. Lord Delacour, her husband despises her and the feelings are mutual , a daughter Helena, they ignore; as she gives extravagant parties to virtual strangers, all to impress society. The witty, beautiful Lady is not content...though. While the resolutions are predictable, and rivals appear, the fun is getting there. A surprisingly modern take on life in general and love in particular for a novel written in 1801, the clever Miss Edgeworth shows the era is quite advanced in thinking and maybe today's civilization can learn much from them...
plenty of unwanted advice, sends the unsophisticated, however, bright, pretty girl to a friend's house, the notorious "Lady of Fashion"...Lady Delacour in London to meet eligible bachelors, that is, with money. And recommends to her quiet, obedient niece, so far, a Mr. Clarence Hervey, she saw in town, a man many ladies covet, but never captured his heart, handsome, young, knowledgeable, a delight..
to listen to his amusing stories and conversations. Belinda, Clarence...
are very drawn together , at their first encounter, cannot stop looking... sparks fly... Don't need to say he has plenty of cash...but there is a catch, not the marrying kind, with some dark secrets, ( like every main character) in his background he will not reveal. His not very respectable friends make fun of Belinda's aunt, her cousins-
and she too, at a party they don't see her almost hidden, in an out of the way location...Clarence seems to agree with their mocking views, the shocked Belinda faints on the floor...The excitement entertains the seen it all Lady Delacour, telling her new close "friend" that she understands, the Lady herself has many acquaintances, but no real friends...a few female enemies...people are disloyal, and love to disparage others. Lord Delacour, her husband despises her and the feelings are mutual , a daughter Helena, they ignore; as she gives extravagant parties to virtual strangers, all to impress society. The witty, beautiful Lady is not content...though. While the resolutions are predictable, and rivals appear, the fun is getting there. A surprisingly modern take on life in general and love in particular for a novel written in 1801, the clever Miss Edgeworth shows the era is quite advanced in thinking and maybe today's civilization can learn much from them...
July 20, 2023
First published January 1, 1801
Jane Austen read Edgeworth's novels and mentions 'Belinda' in her novel, Northanger Abbey. This was a fascinating read as far as a study of the times and manners, roles and expectations of women, a surprising recognition of gambling as an addiction, but lacking in tension and difficult for me to engage with the characters. I liked Belinda as a character, but she was too perfect, no flaws. Clarence Hervey was flawed and more interesting as a character. I felt empathy for the women who are so constricted by their societal roles that the highlight of their lives was the search for the perfect partner. Some women led purposeful lives after their marriage, but even then, that purpose seemed to be driven by the search for the perfect partner for a sister, friend, niece, granddaughter, cousin, and so on. Lady Delacour was a very flawed, multi-faceted character and therefore most interesting. She believes she is dying because a quack doctor has told her so (she has an old wound that seemingly has not healed properly). She carries on with other men . . . it seems to be all flirting, frolicking, and partying under her husband's nose; Lord Delacour drinks incessantly. Lady Delacour has a transformation and Edgeworth makes it credible. Belinda is a paradigm of virtue; she is absolutely flawless in the face of adversity. She is not an unlikable character; she just doesn't seem real.
No doubt, many young women reading Edgeworth's novel during the Regency and Victorian eras would have loved Belinda. I'm not judging them. I might have liked it more as well if I had lived during that time period. Today, women can have an education, careers, interests, hobbies, and Goodread accounts. Yes, we've even moved beyond bringing home the bacon and frying it up in a pan. Remember the 1979 Enjoli perfume 'I'm a Woman' commercial. The Enjoli woman was a 24 hour woman who never let her man forget he was a man, all while making money and being Suzy homemaker in the kitchen. If you're too young to remember this commercial, you can find it on youtube.
Clarence Hervey is Belinda's primary love interest, a man about town, well-fashioned, and one of Lady Belacour's ardent admirers. As another man shows up to create tension, and Clarence Hervey's situation (does he have a mistress?) becomes public, I became engaged enough to finish this novel. This was a challenging read for me; my heart was not in it. I'm not sure if it was the focus on romance or Belinda's flawless character, or perhaps my aggravation with Clarence Hervey's situation. The pacing was uneven, but Edgeworth drew her character's skillfully and manipulated her plot expertly, so I cannot give her less than 3 stars.
Maria Edgeworth, according to Wikipedia, was the most read author during the first decade of the 19th century. Her father was Richard Edgeworth, who eventually fathered twenty-two children with four wives. She developed a strong bond with her father who educated her in law, literature, Irish economics, politics, and science. The style of her novels is morally and socially didactic of which 'Belinda' is a good example. There is a lesson of the highest level of womanly behavior capable of being achieved at the heart of Belinda. Always calm, unruffled, the eye in the center of the storm, and in this particular story, maintaining the light of love for the heroic man she claims in her heart, but not publicly before he announces his love. The man must lead. Everything, always proper.
Jane Austen read Edgeworth's novels and mentions 'Belinda' in her novel, Northanger Abbey. This was a fascinating read as far as a study of the times and manners, roles and expectations of women, a surprising recognition of gambling as an addiction, but lacking in tension and difficult for me to engage with the characters. I liked Belinda as a character, but she was too perfect, no flaws. Clarence Hervey was flawed and more interesting as a character. I felt empathy for the women who are so constricted by their societal roles that the highlight of their lives was the search for the perfect partner. Some women led purposeful lives after their marriage, but even then, that purpose seemed to be driven by the search for the perfect partner for a sister, friend, niece, granddaughter, cousin, and so on. Lady Delacour was a very flawed, multi-faceted character and therefore most interesting. She believes she is dying because a quack doctor has told her so (she has an old wound that seemingly has not healed properly). She carries on with other men . . . it seems to be all flirting, frolicking, and partying under her husband's nose; Lord Delacour drinks incessantly. Lady Delacour has a transformation and Edgeworth makes it credible. Belinda is a paradigm of virtue; she is absolutely flawless in the face of adversity. She is not an unlikable character; she just doesn't seem real.
No doubt, many young women reading Edgeworth's novel during the Regency and Victorian eras would have loved Belinda. I'm not judging them. I might have liked it more as well if I had lived during that time period. Today, women can have an education, careers, interests, hobbies, and Goodread accounts. Yes, we've even moved beyond bringing home the bacon and frying it up in a pan. Remember the 1979 Enjoli perfume 'I'm a Woman' commercial. The Enjoli woman was a 24 hour woman who never let her man forget he was a man, all while making money and being Suzy homemaker in the kitchen. If you're too young to remember this commercial, you can find it on youtube.
Clarence Hervey is Belinda's primary love interest, a man about town, well-fashioned, and one of Lady Belacour's ardent admirers. As another man shows up to create tension, and Clarence Hervey's situation (does he have a mistress?) becomes public, I became engaged enough to finish this novel. This was a challenging read for me; my heart was not in it. I'm not sure if it was the focus on romance or Belinda's flawless character, or perhaps my aggravation with Clarence Hervey's situation. The pacing was uneven, but Edgeworth drew her character's skillfully and manipulated her plot expertly, so I cannot give her less than 3 stars.
Maria Edgeworth, according to Wikipedia, was the most read author during the first decade of the 19th century. Her father was Richard Edgeworth, who eventually fathered twenty-two children with four wives. She developed a strong bond with her father who educated her in law, literature, Irish economics, politics, and science. The style of her novels is morally and socially didactic of which 'Belinda' is a good example. There is a lesson of the highest level of womanly behavior capable of being achieved at the heart of Belinda. Always calm, unruffled, the eye in the center of the storm, and in this particular story, maintaining the light of love for the heroic man she claims in her heart, but not publicly before he announces his love. The man must lead. Everything, always proper.
March 1, 2010
Belinda made interesting reading as a followup to . Edgeworth was a major influence on Austen, and the contrast between the two main characters in Belinda (the sensible eponymous heroine and her mercurial mentor Lady Delacour) clearly prefigures the theme Austen took up in Sense and Sensibility. Austen aside, though, Belinda is good reading in its own right; although it suffers from Edgeworth's determination to write a "Moral Tale" rather than a novel (as she specifies in the foreword) and thus from the moral rectitude of Belinda herself, often unsympathetic in her virtue, the characters (particularly Lady Delacour) are generally winning and the writing witty.
What I found most interesting, though, was Edgeworth's treatment of gender and racial issues. She examines courtship conventions, female independence, and even mixed marriage, which is certainly not a topic I've often come across in novels of the period. A warning: the edition I have is the Oxford World's Classics edition, which uses the text of the second edition of Belinda. Edgeworth edited the novel heavily for the third edition, removing particularly much of her treatment of racial issues (the mixed marriage was entirely removed), so if you're interested in reading Belinda, do seek out the Oxford edition or another that uses the earlier text.
What I found most interesting, though, was Edgeworth's treatment of gender and racial issues. She examines courtship conventions, female independence, and even mixed marriage, which is certainly not a topic I've often come across in novels of the period. A warning: the edition I have is the Oxford World's Classics edition, which uses the text of the second edition of Belinda. Edgeworth edited the novel heavily for the third edition, removing particularly much of her treatment of racial issues (the mixed marriage was entirely removed), so if you're interested in reading Belinda, do seek out the Oxford edition or another that uses the earlier text.
July 27, 2023
A really fascinating read. I love how self-aware Maria Edgeworth is, and I thought the characterisation here was great, though I’m not sure how I feel about the ending.
December 12, 2017
Can be downloaded for free from Project Gutenberg
under the title "Tales and Novels � Volume 03 by Maria Edgeworth"
Update 10/12/2017
Not a full 4 stars (3.75), but I enjoyed it nevertheless.
Belinda, the heroine, is a big step forward compared to the heroines of Fanny Burney (complete ingenues, always the helpless victims of circumstance, waiting for events to miraculously sort themselves out). While still bordering on the perfect, she has a lot of common sense and prudence and is not afraid to use them.
I think Jane Austen's Elinor did like this novel, while Marianne probably was partly disgusted with it, as neither Belinda nor her lover were senselessly passionate about each other and also secondary characters featured, who dared to be happy in a second attachment. :)
A more detailed review to come after some due consideration.
Update 31/Oct/2017
Re-reading to see if it stands the test of time.
I have vague memories of it being OK, but not coming anywhere close to my beloved Jane Austen.
We shall see.
under the title "Tales and Novels � Volume 03 by Maria Edgeworth"
Update 10/12/2017
Not a full 4 stars (3.75), but I enjoyed it nevertheless.
Belinda, the heroine, is a big step forward compared to the heroines of Fanny Burney (complete ingenues, always the helpless victims of circumstance, waiting for events to miraculously sort themselves out). While still bordering on the perfect, she has a lot of common sense and prudence and is not afraid to use them.
I think Jane Austen's Elinor did like this novel, while Marianne probably was partly disgusted with it, as neither Belinda nor her lover were senselessly passionate about each other and also secondary characters featured, who dared to be happy in a second attachment. :)
A more detailed review to come after some due consideration.
Update 31/Oct/2017
Re-reading to see if it stands the test of time.
I have vague memories of it being OK, but not coming anywhere close to my beloved Jane Austen.
We shall see.
February 1, 2020
I read Maria Edgeworth’s Belinda (1801) as part of my occasional series of female predecessors of Jane Austen, following a very successful encounter a few years ago with the splendidly dashing Fanny Burney. I didn’t enjoy Edgeworth’s novel as much as Burney’s Evelina (1778)—at times, frankly, it dragged—but I’m glad I eventually made my way through.
The plot (as you may not be surprised to learn) concerns the sentimental education and path to marriage of an attractive young girl from a respectable, though not over-moneyed, background. As the novel opens, our heroine, Belinda Portman, ‘handsome, graceful, sprightly, and highly accomplished�, is sent to London as a kind of husband-seeking missile by an unscrupulous aunt, Mrs Stanhope. Belinda’s host is the louche and cynical society hostess Lady Delacour (the most original character in the novel, and, for me, the most attractive), in whose company she meets the seductive young wit Clarence Hervey. Amorous intrigues unspool from there, involving both Clarence and, later, Augustus Vincent, the ‘remarkably handsome� planter son of an ‘opulent creole�, and heir to a great Jamaican estate.
One interest of the novel for me was the way in which it seems to track the transition between eighteenth and nineteenth-century fiction. Lady Delacour incarnates the rakishness of the eighteenth century, with her rattling wit, her sexual forthrightness, and her outrageous past, which encompasses an all-female duel. Belinda, by contrast, is a Victorian heroine in the making: not a prude, exactly, but certainly a paradigm of prudence, and an ardent spokeswoman for the pleasures of a well-regulated domestic life. It’s fairly clear from the outset which set of values will triumph, but it’s also interesting to see the starkness of this moral contrast in Belinda, which we see only in a much-attenuated version in Austen--say with the Mary Crawford and Fanny Price of Mansfield Park.
Allusions to the West Indies, and, implicitly, to slavery, are another connection between Belinda and Mansfield Park (Sir Thomas Bertram, in Austen’s novel, has an estate in Antigua, from which, it is implied, he derives his wealth). One of the most unexpected minor characters in Edgeworth’s novel is a young black servant of Augustus Vincent’s, Juba, presumably a former slave, whom we see marrying Lucy, a white, servant-class girl on the estate of Yorkshire estate of Mr Percival, Vincent’s guardian. I was intrigued by this early mention of an interracial marriage, especially since it is introduced rather casually, as if it were nothing to be remarked on. (Depressingly, as I learned from Kathryn Kirkpatrick’s excellent introduction to the Oxford World’s Classics edition, Edgeworth expunged this episode from the 1810 revised version on the advice of her father, Richard Lovell Edgeworth, who, according to a letter of Maria’s, had ‘great scruples and delicacies of conscience about encouraging such marriage�).
The type of constraining moral pressure embodied in this comment of Richard Edgeworth’s probably goes a long way to explain the more unsatisfactory elements in Belinda. A rather heavy-handed and schematic morality shapes the plot of the novel at points, to artistically deadening effect. The lesson of the tale Edgeworth seeks to teach is not so different from that of Austen in Sense and Sensibility, but, where the lighter-footed Austen trusts her readers to deduce their lessons from her fiction, Edgeworth likes to trudge in and tell us what to think.
Edgeworth's moral superego doesn’t succeed in killing off the charm of her novel entirely, however; I agree with Kirkpatrick that the antic Lady Delacour ‘is not entirely contained� within the novel’s moral frame. It’s true, also, that some of the moral-philosophical elements in Belinda have a certain historical interest in themselves (I’m thinking particularly of the bizarre subplot of Clarence Hervey’s grooming of the beautiful child of nature Virginia: preposterous as a plot-point, but interesting as an episode within the Anglophone reception of Rousseau).
The plot (as you may not be surprised to learn) concerns the sentimental education and path to marriage of an attractive young girl from a respectable, though not over-moneyed, background. As the novel opens, our heroine, Belinda Portman, ‘handsome, graceful, sprightly, and highly accomplished�, is sent to London as a kind of husband-seeking missile by an unscrupulous aunt, Mrs Stanhope. Belinda’s host is the louche and cynical society hostess Lady Delacour (the most original character in the novel, and, for me, the most attractive), in whose company she meets the seductive young wit Clarence Hervey. Amorous intrigues unspool from there, involving both Clarence and, later, Augustus Vincent, the ‘remarkably handsome� planter son of an ‘opulent creole�, and heir to a great Jamaican estate.
One interest of the novel for me was the way in which it seems to track the transition between eighteenth and nineteenth-century fiction. Lady Delacour incarnates the rakishness of the eighteenth century, with her rattling wit, her sexual forthrightness, and her outrageous past, which encompasses an all-female duel. Belinda, by contrast, is a Victorian heroine in the making: not a prude, exactly, but certainly a paradigm of prudence, and an ardent spokeswoman for the pleasures of a well-regulated domestic life. It’s fairly clear from the outset which set of values will triumph, but it’s also interesting to see the starkness of this moral contrast in Belinda, which we see only in a much-attenuated version in Austen--say with the Mary Crawford and Fanny Price of Mansfield Park.
Allusions to the West Indies, and, implicitly, to slavery, are another connection between Belinda and Mansfield Park (Sir Thomas Bertram, in Austen’s novel, has an estate in Antigua, from which, it is implied, he derives his wealth). One of the most unexpected minor characters in Edgeworth’s novel is a young black servant of Augustus Vincent’s, Juba, presumably a former slave, whom we see marrying Lucy, a white, servant-class girl on the estate of Yorkshire estate of Mr Percival, Vincent’s guardian. I was intrigued by this early mention of an interracial marriage, especially since it is introduced rather casually, as if it were nothing to be remarked on. (Depressingly, as I learned from Kathryn Kirkpatrick’s excellent introduction to the Oxford World’s Classics edition, Edgeworth expunged this episode from the 1810 revised version on the advice of her father, Richard Lovell Edgeworth, who, according to a letter of Maria’s, had ‘great scruples and delicacies of conscience about encouraging such marriage�).
The type of constraining moral pressure embodied in this comment of Richard Edgeworth’s probably goes a long way to explain the more unsatisfactory elements in Belinda. A rather heavy-handed and schematic morality shapes the plot of the novel at points, to artistically deadening effect. The lesson of the tale Edgeworth seeks to teach is not so different from that of Austen in Sense and Sensibility, but, where the lighter-footed Austen trusts her readers to deduce their lessons from her fiction, Edgeworth likes to trudge in and tell us what to think.
Edgeworth's moral superego doesn’t succeed in killing off the charm of her novel entirely, however; I agree with Kirkpatrick that the antic Lady Delacour ‘is not entirely contained� within the novel’s moral frame. It’s true, also, that some of the moral-philosophical elements in Belinda have a certain historical interest in themselves (I’m thinking particularly of the bizarre subplot of Clarence Hervey’s grooming of the beautiful child of nature Virginia: preposterous as a plot-point, but interesting as an episode within the Anglophone reception of Rousseau).
October 21, 2023
Addition: On page 876, two male characters were in a bookstore and got into an altercation, resulting in one losing a finger and the other getting a wound in his side. It was SUPER glossed over how it happened. Did they have a duel at a later date or did they literally have a brawl then and there in the store?!?
Original review below this point.
Wow, like ALL the drama in this one. I guess back in 1801, without TV and the internet, they needed SOME way to entertain themselves, lol.
Warning: there is a suicide attempt with a gun in this book. It is thwarted, but for those of you who might be sensitive to that, please take note.
This book was highly entertaining. The version I listened to did not have the mixed race relationship in it, which disappointed me. Maria Edgeworth was ahead of her time with writing that, but her father decided to remove that on a re-edit. Jerk.
So, I did enjoy the drama, though I had to step back a few times because it was almost too much for me to handle. I'm not big on drama IRL, so to have it be so OTT as it was in this book shook me a few times.
I did NOT like the MC H AT ALL. He basically groomed a 16 year old girl who was so isolated by her grandmother in a twisted attempt to protect her, that the 16 year old never met a man IRL and ended up only seeing a picture of one once. Our "hero" realized this and ended up taking her in and raising her to be the "perfect" bride and wife for him when she was trained properly and old enough to wed. He ALSO kept her from all society, basically a prisoner, with only one older lady as her companion and guardian. Say WHUT?!? And her father was a HUGE jerk as well.
Also, like all drama, there is a DECIDED lack of communication between just about ALL of the characters, except for Belinda. Now, some have complained that she is a Mary Sue, but it's a relief to have some common sense injected in this book. She was refreshing to me.
Also, Mrs. Freek didn't get NEARLY what she deserved IMHO. Most of the less than pleasant people did. I also think the gambling issue shouldn't have been interjected into the love rival and that the love rival should have gotten the girl and not the Groomer. My ship, sunk. Pout.
This was a great character study and I DID enjoy it, even if I needed to take breaks from the drama. The narrator did a good job, other than my usual complaint of the waffling voice volume. Her voice was very pleasing to the ear and there was usually enough distinction to tell the characters apart. Once in a while I think there were a few slip ups with that, but I was still able to follow along ok.
4, this is a classic that I think should stay and we need the ORIGINAL one with the mixed race couple in it, stars.
My thanks to libro.fm and Naxos AudioBooks for an ALC of this book to listen to and review.
Original review below this point.
Wow, like ALL the drama in this one. I guess back in 1801, without TV and the internet, they needed SOME way to entertain themselves, lol.
Warning: there is a suicide attempt with a gun in this book. It is thwarted, but for those of you who might be sensitive to that, please take note.
This book was highly entertaining. The version I listened to did not have the mixed race relationship in it, which disappointed me. Maria Edgeworth was ahead of her time with writing that, but her father decided to remove that on a re-edit. Jerk.
So, I did enjoy the drama, though I had to step back a few times because it was almost too much for me to handle. I'm not big on drama IRL, so to have it be so OTT as it was in this book shook me a few times.
I did NOT like the MC H AT ALL. He basically groomed a 16 year old girl who was so isolated by her grandmother in a twisted attempt to protect her, that the 16 year old never met a man IRL and ended up only seeing a picture of one once. Our "hero" realized this and ended up taking her in and raising her to be the "perfect" bride and wife for him when she was trained properly and old enough to wed. He ALSO kept her from all society, basically a prisoner, with only one older lady as her companion and guardian. Say WHUT?!? And her father was a HUGE jerk as well.
Also, like all drama, there is a DECIDED lack of communication between just about ALL of the characters, except for Belinda. Now, some have complained that she is a Mary Sue, but it's a relief to have some common sense injected in this book. She was refreshing to me.
Also, Mrs. Freek didn't get NEARLY what she deserved IMHO. Most of the less than pleasant people did. I also think the gambling issue shouldn't have been interjected into the love rival and that the love rival should have gotten the girl and not the Groomer. My ship, sunk. Pout.
This was a great character study and I DID enjoy it, even if I needed to take breaks from the drama. The narrator did a good job, other than my usual complaint of the waffling voice volume. Her voice was very pleasing to the ear and there was usually enough distinction to tell the characters apart. Once in a while I think there were a few slip ups with that, but I was still able to follow along ok.
4, this is a classic that I think should stay and we need the ORIGINAL one with the mixed race couple in it, stars.
My thanks to libro.fm and Naxos AudioBooks for an ALC of this book to listen to and review.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 12, 2010
Belinda is a silly, naive girl who is sent to stay with the glamorous Lady Delacour. Her worldly aunt wants her to find a rich husband, Lady Delacour wants her to be entertaining, and Belinda just wants to fall in love. She is initially dazzled by the high-flying life of the Delacours and the rest of the Ton, but rapidly sees the dark side to the sparkling diamonds and scathing witticisms.
Although the novel was published in 1801, this is a very readable book, with dialog that still scintillates to the modern ear. Alas, Edgeworth lost her nerve half way through this fascinating novel. Abruptly, everything becomes black or white. Belinda becomes a paragon of such utter virtue that she never puts a foot wrong, and thus loses all individuality. The battle between the ideals of Harriet Freke (a proto-feminst character) and the perfect Percivals is never truly joined, because the author explicitly calls one side monstrous and the other virtuous. Edgeworth also doesn't trust the reader to judge rightly which love interest Belinda should marry--she suddenly writes one as though all he does is rescue curates and innocent girls, and the other as an inveterate gambler and liar. The only character who survives this reformation is Lady Delacour, whose courage and satiric mind remain undimmed despite her adoption of a more domestic (and thus, virtuous) lifestyle. Lady Delacour is a character for the ages, as witty as Wilde's and as emotionally complex as Woolf's. For her alone, this book is worth reading.
Although the novel was published in 1801, this is a very readable book, with dialog that still scintillates to the modern ear. Alas, Edgeworth lost her nerve half way through this fascinating novel. Abruptly, everything becomes black or white. Belinda becomes a paragon of such utter virtue that she never puts a foot wrong, and thus loses all individuality. The battle between the ideals of Harriet Freke (a proto-feminst character) and the perfect Percivals is never truly joined, because the author explicitly calls one side monstrous and the other virtuous. Edgeworth also doesn't trust the reader to judge rightly which love interest Belinda should marry--she suddenly writes one as though all he does is rescue curates and innocent girls, and the other as an inveterate gambler and liar. The only character who survives this reformation is Lady Delacour, whose courage and satiric mind remain undimmed despite her adoption of a more domestic (and thus, virtuous) lifestyle. Lady Delacour is a character for the ages, as witty as Wilde's and as emotionally complex as Woolf's. For her alone, this book is worth reading.
April 25, 2021
A lovely story, very reminiscent of Austen, but far more moralistic and patronising at times, and with a heroine not nearly as enjoyable to read about. I loved the counter-point character of the flightly, temperamental and sometimes abrasive Lady Delacour way more than I like the main character, who suffered from being sanctimonious and too perfect to be relatable. Plus, the ending was rather disappointing.
On the other hand, Edgeworth is as witty as Austen, and can be as funny, but she's mostly more serious and more interested in setting up a good example than the other author, which is why I didn't enjoy this as much as I could've.
On the other hand, Edgeworth is as witty as Austen, and can be as funny, but she's mostly more serious and more interested in setting up a good example than the other author, which is why I didn't enjoy this as much as I could've.
February 20, 2019
A book that at first seems to be one of many of those times that describe the marriage game, but in the process, the author deals with many of the issues of her era, especially those about women. The heroine of the book is a young woman trained at the marriage game from very young, bringing together all these qualities that would help her attract the right man who could provide her with a comfortable life. But coming in contact with the world and having the necessary sensitivity understands how silly this pursuit is and how it does not always lead to happiness.
From her own perspective, the author leads us to the world of women of that time and in satirical mood talks about the upbringing of girls, the anticipated behaviour of women, the social pressure, the conservative but also the protofeminist perceptions that came to conflict. Together with all this, she also tells us a nice story, introducing us some very remarkable characters expressing their opinions by representing specific concepts or taking the role of example for what the writer wants to say. With these things I leave this book definitely pleased.
Ένα βιβλίο που στο ξεκίνημά του μοιάζει να είναι ένα από τα πολλά εκείνης της εποχής που περιγράφουν το παιχνίδι του γάμου, στην πορεία, όμως, η συγγραφέας ασχολείται με πολλά από τα ζητήματα της εποχής της, ειδικά αυτά που απασχολούσαν τις γυναίκες. Η ηρωίδα του βιβλίου είναι μία νεαρή γυναίκα που εκπαιδεύτηκε από μικρή στο παιχνίδι του γάμου, συγκεντρώνοντας όλα αυτά τα προσόντα που θα την βοηθούσαν στην προσέλκυση του κατάλληλου άνδρα που θα μπορούσε να της προσφέρει μία άνετη ζωή. Ερχόμενη, όμως, σε επαφή με τον κόσμο και έχοντας την απαραίτητη ευαισθησία καταλαβαίνει πόσο ανόητη είναι αυτή η επιδίωξη και πως δεν οδηγεί πάντοτε στην ευτυχία.
Μέσα από τη δική της ματιά η συγγραφέας μας οδηγεί στον κόσμο των γυναικών εκείνης της εποχής και με σατιρική διάθεση μιλάει για την ανατροφή των κοριτσιών, την αναμενόμενη συμπεριφορά των γυναικών, την κοινωνική πίεση, τις συντηρητικές αλλά και τις πρώτο-φεμινιστικές αντιλήψεις που έρχονταν σε σύγκρουση. Μαζί με όλα αυτά, όμως, μας αφηγείται και μία ωραία ιστορία, συστήνοντας μας μερικούς πολύ αξιοσημείωτους χαρακτήρες που εκφράζουν τις απόψεις τους εκπροσωπώντας συγκεκριμένες αντιλήψεις ή παίρνουν τον ρόλο του παραδείγματος για αυτά που η συγγραφέας θέλει να πει. Με αυτά τα πράγματα αφήνω αυτό το βιβλίο σίγουρα ευχαριστημένος.
From her own perspective, the author leads us to the world of women of that time and in satirical mood talks about the upbringing of girls, the anticipated behaviour of women, the social pressure, the conservative but also the protofeminist perceptions that came to conflict. Together with all this, she also tells us a nice story, introducing us some very remarkable characters expressing their opinions by representing specific concepts or taking the role of example for what the writer wants to say. With these things I leave this book definitely pleased.
Ένα βιβλίο που στο ξεκίνημά του μοιάζει να είναι ένα από τα πολλά εκείνης της εποχής που περιγράφουν το παιχνίδι του γάμου, στην πορεία, όμως, η συγγραφέας ασχολείται με πολλά από τα ζητήματα της εποχής της, ειδικά αυτά που απασχολούσαν τις γυναίκες. Η ηρωίδα του βιβλίου είναι μία νεαρή γυναίκα που εκπαιδεύτηκε από μικρή στο παιχνίδι του γάμου, συγκεντρώνοντας όλα αυτά τα προσόντα που θα την βοηθούσαν στην προσέλκυση του κατάλληλου άνδρα που θα μπορούσε να της προσφέρει μία άνετη ζωή. Ερχόμενη, όμως, σε επαφή με τον κόσμο και έχοντας την απαραίτητη ευαισθησία καταλαβαίνει πόσο ανόητη είναι αυτή η επιδίωξη και πως δεν οδηγεί πάντοτε στην ευτυχία.
Μέσα από τη δική της ματιά η συγγραφέας μας οδηγεί στον κόσμο των γυναικών εκείνης της εποχής και με σατιρική διάθεση μιλάει για την ανατροφή των κοριτσιών, την αναμενόμενη συμπεριφορά των γυναικών, την κοινωνική πίεση, τις συντηρητικές αλλά και τις πρώτο-φεμινιστικές αντιλήψεις που έρχονταν σε σύγκρουση. Μαζί με όλα αυτά, όμως, μας αφηγείται και μία ωραία ιστορία, συστήνοντας μας μερικούς πολύ αξιοσημείωτους χαρακτήρες που εκφράζουν τις απόψεις τους εκπροσωπώντας συγκεκριμένες αντιλήψεις ή παίρνουν τον ρόλο του παραδείγματος για αυτά που η συγγραφέας θέλει να πει. Με αυτά τα πράγματα αφήνω αυτό το βιβλίο σίγουρα ευχαριστημένος.
June 28, 2022
He leído este libro en la Lectura conjunta organizada por Raquel de LaPeceraRaquel, en su grupo de Pemberley Books.
No sabré porque este libro se llama Belinda. Misterios de la literatura.
El mejor personaje de libro es con diferencia Lady Delacour y solo por leer su historia y sus frases merece la pena leer el libro.
La novela está a medio camino entre la novela moral y el folletín más descarado. La primera parte de la obra se encuadra más dentro del género de novela moral, contraponiendo por un lado la familia de Lady Delacour con la de Lord Percival, con sus advertencias y discursos moralizantes sobre el decoro, y la honradez; y condenando la frivolidad y egoísmo de aquellos miembros de la buena sociedad, que solo piensan en divertirse y en destacar por encima de los demás, no siempre por sus virtudes y buenas acciones. Nos encontramos así con personajes arquetípicos de este género: el disoluto, la coqueta redimida, el petimetre, el cotilla malévolo, el jugador ... Por contraposición la segunda parte de la novela tiende más al folletín decimonónico puro y duro, con un montón de situaciones absurdas y rocambolescas, así como giros en el argumento que producen casi vergüenza ajena, ... nada que envidiar a la telenovela más desatada (ya sea turca o venezolana).
Por último, la Belinda que da título a la obra, es un personaje pasivo, casi sin interés y muy aburrida, un personaje apagado, sin chispa.
LO MEJOR: Lady Delacour.
LO PEOR: Haberlo leído muy seguido de Evelina (con el que tiene mucho en común) pero que es bastante más divertido y sarcástico que Belinda.
No sabré porque este libro se llama Belinda. Misterios de la literatura.
El mejor personaje de libro es con diferencia Lady Delacour y solo por leer su historia y sus frases merece la pena leer el libro.
La novela está a medio camino entre la novela moral y el folletín más descarado. La primera parte de la obra se encuadra más dentro del género de novela moral, contraponiendo por un lado la familia de Lady Delacour con la de Lord Percival, con sus advertencias y discursos moralizantes sobre el decoro, y la honradez; y condenando la frivolidad y egoísmo de aquellos miembros de la buena sociedad, que solo piensan en divertirse y en destacar por encima de los demás, no siempre por sus virtudes y buenas acciones. Nos encontramos así con personajes arquetípicos de este género: el disoluto, la coqueta redimida, el petimetre, el cotilla malévolo, el jugador ... Por contraposición la segunda parte de la novela tiende más al folletín decimonónico puro y duro, con un montón de situaciones absurdas y rocambolescas, así como giros en el argumento que producen casi vergüenza ajena, ... nada que envidiar a la telenovela más desatada (ya sea turca o venezolana).
Por último, la Belinda que da título a la obra, es un personaje pasivo, casi sin interés y muy aburrida, un personaje apagado, sin chispa.
LO MEJOR: Lady Delacour.
LO PEOR: Haberlo leído muy seguido de Evelina (con el que tiene mucho en común) pero que es bastante más divertido y sarcástico que Belinda.
July 20, 2022
With Belinda, Maria Edgeworth has written half a good book. Whenever the setting is a drawing room, and especially when Lady Delacour is present, this novel is sparkling, clever, erudite, and surprising. Absent those conditions, it is clumsy and preposterous.
To the story: Miss Belinda Portman, an orphan, is sent by her scheming, matchmaking aunt to stay with a society matron, Lady Delacour, with the view of finding her a husband. Lady Delacour is witty and sophisticated in public but hides secrets, some painful, some disreputable. An accident some years before left her with a good deal of pain, which she overtreats with opiates, believing that she has breast cancer and is soon to die; she and her husband are in bitter conflict over money and trust issues. Belinda finds herself dropped into this unsavory household, but being an unusual heroine—willing to act on those around her rather than simply getting buffeted by circumstance—she sets out to fix everyone’s ills. In the process, she reveals herself to be a level-headed young woman, unimpressed by the luxury and glamour of London’s high society, hardly the clueless ingenue we have come to expect in this situation.
In Lady Delacour’s household, Belinda meets a very promising young man: handsome, rich, literary, capable in every way imaginable. But the reader also sees him outside Belinda’s company, and his behavior among his fellows is enough to give us a degree of doubt about his suitability. Then he starts behaving in squirrely ways toward our heroine before dropping out of sight. Rumors abound to his discredit. Lady Delacour, meanwhile, has thought herself into suspicion of Belinda’s motives and basically throws her out of the house. The aunt has also gotten mad at Belinda for refusing the proposals of another gentleman, but fortunately, Belinda has met a family of upright people who invite her for a longish visit. There she meets another young man who also becomes a suitor.
Circumstances take Belinda back to the Delacour household, where she promptly resumes her interventions to rescue her host and hostess from themselves. But at this point the narrative starts getting sidetracked into long narratives of offstage action and Edgeworth basically loses control of her material. To keep the reader in suspense and to keep the reversals coming, she has to resort to increasingly unbelievable coincidences and storylines co-opted from romance novels. (One storyline is ripped straight from the pages of Fanny Burney’s Evelina; most are from gothic fiction.)
Edgeworth seems aware of the problems in her composition, and she makes a stab at rescuing matters by inviting the reader to share her awareness of artificiality. There are frequent asides and coy references to the fact that the players are characters in a novel; and at the end there’s a scene clearly envisioned as a set piece from a stage comedy. All this sits uneasily with the naturalistic approach of the scenes that predominated at first, and it turns an intriguingly sensible heroine into the pooper at a party full of livelier spirits.
Ideas and phrases in this book are echoed a few years later in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, and I can see that Austen studied Belinda closely and analyzed its problems to the benefit of her own work. Edgeworth seems like a formidably intelligent writer, and if she had come after Austen and the learning had gone the other direction, the results might have been impressive. As it is, this novel tells us a lot about the struggles early novelists had when trying to synthesize the tropes of other literary forms into a new kind of work.
Textual note: The book was first published in 1801 and lightly revised in 1802; the second edition was the basis for the version I read. A decade later she revised it again in unfortunate ways, so if looking for a copy be sure to read one based on the 1801 or 1802 edition. Among other things, the third edition eliminates an interracial romance. There are extremely cringey elements to the black character as well as to one other cameo character, but those are consistent with the mind-set of the era and are interesting from a historical perspective.
To the story: Miss Belinda Portman, an orphan, is sent by her scheming, matchmaking aunt to stay with a society matron, Lady Delacour, with the view of finding her a husband. Lady Delacour is witty and sophisticated in public but hides secrets, some painful, some disreputable. An accident some years before left her with a good deal of pain, which she overtreats with opiates, believing that she has breast cancer and is soon to die; she and her husband are in bitter conflict over money and trust issues. Belinda finds herself dropped into this unsavory household, but being an unusual heroine—willing to act on those around her rather than simply getting buffeted by circumstance—she sets out to fix everyone’s ills. In the process, she reveals herself to be a level-headed young woman, unimpressed by the luxury and glamour of London’s high society, hardly the clueless ingenue we have come to expect in this situation.
In Lady Delacour’s household, Belinda meets a very promising young man: handsome, rich, literary, capable in every way imaginable. But the reader also sees him outside Belinda’s company, and his behavior among his fellows is enough to give us a degree of doubt about his suitability. Then he starts behaving in squirrely ways toward our heroine before dropping out of sight. Rumors abound to his discredit. Lady Delacour, meanwhile, has thought herself into suspicion of Belinda’s motives and basically throws her out of the house. The aunt has also gotten mad at Belinda for refusing the proposals of another gentleman, but fortunately, Belinda has met a family of upright people who invite her for a longish visit. There she meets another young man who also becomes a suitor.
Circumstances take Belinda back to the Delacour household, where she promptly resumes her interventions to rescue her host and hostess from themselves. But at this point the narrative starts getting sidetracked into long narratives of offstage action and Edgeworth basically loses control of her material. To keep the reader in suspense and to keep the reversals coming, she has to resort to increasingly unbelievable coincidences and storylines co-opted from romance novels. (One storyline is ripped straight from the pages of Fanny Burney’s Evelina; most are from gothic fiction.)
Edgeworth seems aware of the problems in her composition, and she makes a stab at rescuing matters by inviting the reader to share her awareness of artificiality. There are frequent asides and coy references to the fact that the players are characters in a novel; and at the end there’s a scene clearly envisioned as a set piece from a stage comedy. All this sits uneasily with the naturalistic approach of the scenes that predominated at first, and it turns an intriguingly sensible heroine into the pooper at a party full of livelier spirits.
Ideas and phrases in this book are echoed a few years later in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, and I can see that Austen studied Belinda closely and analyzed its problems to the benefit of her own work. Edgeworth seems like a formidably intelligent writer, and if she had come after Austen and the learning had gone the other direction, the results might have been impressive. As it is, this novel tells us a lot about the struggles early novelists had when trying to synthesize the tropes of other literary forms into a new kind of work.
Textual note: The book was first published in 1801 and lightly revised in 1802; the second edition was the basis for the version I read. A decade later she revised it again in unfortunate ways, so if looking for a copy be sure to read one based on the 1801 or 1802 edition. Among other things, the third edition eliminates an interracial romance. There are extremely cringey elements to the black character as well as to one other cameo character, but those are consistent with the mind-set of the era and are interesting from a historical perspective.
January 4, 2024
2024 reread:
Rereading this book for my dissertation was a true pleasure! I wholeheartedly give it five stars!
If possible, I like Lady Delacour even better, especially towards the end. She is just so witty and funny!
And all the metatextuality, I am so here for it!
Original review:
Can somebody please remind me why have we exactly discarded with didactic fiction? Oh, yes of course, under the pretense that these books are preachy, stuffy and insufferably stuck-up. Well, I beg to differ.
This novel has been a real pleasure to read, and (I know, shocker) actually made me think about how I see romantic relationships, the process of finding a partner, and about how humans should treat each other in general. Now, I do not see everything as the writer of this novel did (taking into account that a good 200 years have passed since the publication of her book), yet I still gleaned some valuable pieces of wisdom from her. And I defy any critic or actually stuck-up modern reader to tell me that because a book does not cater to our modern-day sensibilities and tastes, it is therefore bad and should not be read. As Lady Delacour, I would laugh full in their faces.
As for the story itself, I was glued to it as a soap-opera addict is glued to the screen. Very engaging and full of delightful, if not totally unexpected, twists. The character of Lady Delacour was drawn admirably and she was without a doubt the most likable and most believable out of all the characters.
And the ending... The ending was a delicious piece of metatextuality, which totally intrigued my scholarly side!
5 brilliant, blinding stars for my thorough enjoyment of this novel!
Rereading this book for my dissertation was a true pleasure! I wholeheartedly give it five stars!
If possible, I like Lady Delacour even better, especially towards the end. She is just so witty and funny!
And all the metatextuality, I am so here for it!
Original review:
Can somebody please remind me why have we exactly discarded with didactic fiction? Oh, yes of course, under the pretense that these books are preachy, stuffy and insufferably stuck-up. Well, I beg to differ.
This novel has been a real pleasure to read, and (I know, shocker) actually made me think about how I see romantic relationships, the process of finding a partner, and about how humans should treat each other in general. Now, I do not see everything as the writer of this novel did (taking into account that a good 200 years have passed since the publication of her book), yet I still gleaned some valuable pieces of wisdom from her. And I defy any critic or actually stuck-up modern reader to tell me that because a book does not cater to our modern-day sensibilities and tastes, it is therefore bad and should not be read. As Lady Delacour, I would laugh full in their faces.
As for the story itself, I was glued to it as a soap-opera addict is glued to the screen. Very engaging and full of delightful, if not totally unexpected, twists. The character of Lady Delacour was drawn admirably and she was without a doubt the most likable and most believable out of all the characters.
And the ending... The ending was a delicious piece of metatextuality, which totally intrigued my scholarly side!
5 brilliant, blinding stars for my thorough enjoyment of this novel!
December 15, 2015
3.5
Belinda was written in a time when most people thought that young women reading books is a waste of time.
Jane Austen mocked this notion in and so does Edgeworth but in less noticeable way.
Most important thing about Belinda is that it isn't a novel, it's a moral tale. As such Belinda, our heroine, is intentionally Mary Sue and the story suffers for it. That's said the story is interesting enough and Edgeworth's talent shows. One could only wish she wouldn't had well intending father who gave her useless writing advices. It was him who encouraged Edgeworth to write moral tales and not novels.
And I would highly recommend Moore's the real story behind Clarence Hervey and Virginia.
Belinda was written in a time when most people thought that young women reading books is a waste of time.
Jane Austen mocked this notion in and so does Edgeworth but in less noticeable way.
Most important thing about Belinda is that it isn't a novel, it's a moral tale. As such Belinda, our heroine, is intentionally Mary Sue and the story suffers for it. That's said the story is interesting enough and Edgeworth's talent shows. One could only wish she wouldn't had well intending father who gave her useless writing advices. It was him who encouraged Edgeworth to write moral tales and not novels.
And I would highly recommend Moore's the real story behind Clarence Hervey and Virginia.
June 21, 2022
Cuando leí que esta escritora inspiró a Jane Austen me hice una idea equivocada, y eso quizá arruinó mi lectura. No he encontrado humor ni ironía, ni emociones contenidas pero profundas, propias de Austen.
Tiene una buena narrativa, pero la historia transcurre muy lenta, con personajes que disertan largamente, sobre la vida en sociedad y las posibilidades de las jóvenes.
Tiene una buena narrativa, pero la historia transcurre muy lenta, con personajes que disertan largamente, sobre la vida en sociedad y las posibilidades de las jóvenes.
February 7, 2017
I actually enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. I found myself actually enjoying the story and really getting into it but then it started to drag out and I got impatient. I can handle a little bit of unimportant waffle in a book but this book had so much waffle!! It did not need to be so long! I'm also glad that we talk differently nowadays as their talk also drove me crazy at times. I'm not doing a long review because I'm so sick of analysing this for college!
July 10, 2017
I think if I had read this rather than listened this maybe a four star read. Unfortunately, some of the narrators on Librivox were subpar and I know that I missed some details. What I did catch was entertaining and filled with interesting characters. Lady Delacor was a piece of work - I just loved her. You can see the influence on Austen. It got a little weird at times, and it was by no means at Austen's level, but she did have some well-worded sentences and quotes.
February 23, 2025
What a pleasant surprise. This book is miles better in writing, structure and characterisation than anything in a similar vein (except Jane Austen) I've read so far from this time peroid. Mrs. Delacour is one of the most fascinating characters I've read in a while, Clarence Hervey kept showing new faces and Belinda might be "virtuous" but she also has her own mind. If you enjoy Austen, this might work for you as well. It seems less modern in its values and I have issues with the ending, but this was a joy to read.
August 10, 2017
This was my first time reading Maria Edgeworth but will not be my last after enjoying Belinda so much I had a hard time putting my kindle down. Her writing reminded me of Jane Austen "souped up" with many incredible characters and the meanest female character- Harriot Freake - I remember reading with really no visable caring concern but self centered equal to many cruel men. If Harriot heard this I am sure she would be pleased to be in league with these men, not caring for men, yet married, but being able to equal them. I mention Jane Austen but it is apparent Maria Edgeworth preceded her in publishing her novels. The society of London and marriage market especially of well known Mrs. Stanhold, when men hear of nieces they try not to get caught in their traps, Belinda gives her aunt a run for her money. I did not read this edition but started with a collection of Maria Edgeworth but switched after repeated paragraphs and finished on Delphi Clasics on kindle edition with any known errors. Being an old fashioned romance reader, this was perfect in suspense till the very end.
September 13, 2022
Maravillosa novela muy transgresora para su época, me la pille por que la vendían como que fue una de las lecturas favoritas de Jane Austen, y supongo que lo serie ya que es maravillosa, solo peca de una cosa y es que a veces las cosas pasan muy rápido y que la autora se guarda alguna información, pero esto no resta valor al libro ya que es muy bueno, con unos personajes increíbles y nada pastosos, con una critica a la sociedad estupenda y con una historia muy entretenida. Desde luego los personajes es lo que mas me gusto a mi, termine adorando a todos ellos tanto a los malos como a los buenos, y la trama esta muy bien llevada, bastante enrevesada y nos narra la entrada a la sociedad de Belinda, con la protección de una amiga que no es muy puritana que digamos y con su tía a su sombra una mujer conocida como la casamentera y la cosa se ira enrevesando y enredando con un sin fin de maravilloso personajes.
No es nada rosa, por decirlo de algún modo, es bastante critica y divertida. Hasta hay una pequeña ruptura de la cuarta pared que no me esperaba para nada.
No es nada rosa, por decirlo de algún modo, es bastante critica y divertida. Hasta hay una pequeña ruptura de la cuarta pared que no me esperaba para nada.
October 31, 2022
In a hilarious “How dare Sir Walter Scott write such good novels?!� moment, Jane Austen said in a letter to her niece, “I have made up my mind to like no novels really but Miss Edgeworth's, yours, and my own.� So I quite enjoyed reading another novel that Jane loved and even name-dropped in Northanger Abbey. The last few chapters in particular were SUCH a wild ride. What fun.
(The Literary Life Podcast’s 2 for '22 Reading Challenge: Favorite Author of Your Favorite Author � Second choice)
(The Literary Life Podcast’s 2 for '22 Reading Challenge: Favorite Author of Your Favorite Author � Second choice)
October 16, 2021
Cuando vi la portada de Belinda en el catálogo de Libros de Seda no pude evitar sentirme atraída, pensé "este es de los míos". He leído muchos clásicos pero no soy una versada en el tema, todavía me quedan muchos autores por descubrir, entre ellos estaba precisamente Maria Edgeworth, no conocía a esta escritora ni ninguna de sus creaciones, así que no pude evitar darle una oportunidad (y menos mal que lo hice). Antes de hablar de la historia, aprovecho para poneros un poco en contexto con la autora.
Maria Edgeworth (1768-1849) fue una escritora angloirlandesa. Muy popular en su época, fue una de las autoras favoritas de Jane Austen, que incluso llegó a mencionarla en sus obras. Entre sus novelas, que siempre tenían un propósito moral, destacan El castillo de Rackrent (1800), Belinda (1801) o Ennui (1809).
Belinda tiene aproximadamente cuatrocientas setenta y cinco páginas, agrupadas en tres volúmenes:
Como es obvio, la protagonista de esta historia es Belinda una muchacha que está bien situada aunque no en exceso, la historia comienza con su llegada a Londres. Respecto al primer volumen, se centra en la introducción a la sociedad de Belinda por parte de lady Delacour. Belinda es el último proyecto de la señora Stanhope, esta mujer es reconocida en las altas esferas por casar a cualquier joven que se proponga, no en vano negoció todas las uniones de sus sobrinas, llegando el turno de Belinda. Muchos jóvenes huyen despavoridos en cuanto ven a Stanhope. Belinda contará con la ayuda de lady Delancour para internarse en la sociedad. Sin duda, este personaje es el más controvertido y llamativo, es interesante ver la evolución entre Belinda y Delancour y cómo conocemos las diversas facetas de esta última.
Segundo: se centra en especial en la relación entre Belinda y lady Delacour junto con el estado de lady Delacour. Mientras tanto, la tía de Belinda sigue buscando el mejor partido, no cesa ni un minuto en su objetivo, le envía cartas que parecen novelas a su sobrina alabando a los candidatos y presionando para que escoja el que quiere ella porque es el más adecuado.
En cuanto a la relación entre Belinda y lady Delacour es interesante ver el contraste de pensamiento entre ambas. Delacous tiene un pasado... cómo decirlo para no hacer spoiler ¿escandaloso? para la época, es muy abierta de mente, habla sin tapujos de cualquier tema y no le teme a nada; mientras que Belinda es el prototipo de "dama" que estamos acostumbrados a leer: recatada, prudente y formal.
Tercero: cortejo y elección. Belinda tendrá que decidir qué prima más y qué quiere para su futuro. No es fácil dada la época seguir sus convicciones, más aún cuando su tía actúa de casamentera. Augustus Vincent y Clarence Hervey son los dos candidatos, su tía lo tiene claro pero ¿y Belinda?
Con Belinda hacemos un viaje en el tiempo desde el minuto cero. Obviamente, se nota mucho cuando el propio autor es de la época, Maria Edgeworth nos lleva de la mano a su tiempo mostrándonos el cambio que se estaba produciendo en ese momento, adentrándonos en el pensamiento y las costumbres. Con especial mención a los problemas con el juego, el negocio de los matrimonios concertados en contraposición a los matrimonios por amor y un acercamiento a la nobleza. Tocando muy por encima el tema de la esclavitud con unas escenas muy llamativas para ese momento (entre Juba y Lucy).
Por último, creo que no puedo terminar la reseña sin nombrar a la traductora (Noemí Jiménez) quien ha hecho una labor encomiable con esta historia. Y todo mi agradecimiento por las notas a pie de página, sin ellas estaría perdida, hay muchas aclaraciones porque la autora hace referencias a hechos populares de la época o personas relevantes del momento, y sin las aclaraciones no hubiese entendido la ironía o crítica del momento.
Transcribo parte de la «Nota sobre la edición» por si a alguien le puede resultar de ayuda: "Para la presente traducción hemos utilizado como base el texto íntegro de la primera edición de Belinda, originalmente publicado en tres volúmenes con el nombre de la autora en junio de 1801 y que Oxford Classics recuperó en 2017 acompañándolo de un importante y compuestísimo aparato crítico. Es la primera vez que esta obra se traduce al castellano."
May 16, 2019
My dear Belinda, if you will not quarrel with the quality, you may have what quantity of praise you please.This, to put it plainly, was a mess. Reading it was akin to following a long, arduous, and convoluted Twitter drama where all is told and nothing is shown, and the emotional payout isn't slow burn but an exasperating "Finally!" to the resolution between a personality-less paragon and a supremely creepy patriarchal ideal. It's infuriating that this edition is the heavily censored 1811 version, which cuts out all mention of interracial marriages, both fulfilled and potential, because I don't see myself deigning to go through this narrative again just for the sake of seeing how far the rot of Edgeworth's father spread. Thus, I may never be able to legitimately judge this, and it's an added shame that I had to discover the particulars of this censorship not from this work's introduction, but Wikipedia of all places. All in all, my reading of this did not occur at all in a satisfactory fashion, so all I can hope is that thirty or forty years hence, I settle down with an edition of the 1801 version with far more footnotes and/or extant material to its name. I don't expect to like the story any better, but I'll at least understand the context far more than I do so at present.
'Why will you delight in making yourself less good than you are, my dear Lady Delacour?' said Belinda, taking her hand.This narrative was little more than a rapid fire compilation of explanations, enunciations, and long winded flashbacks into the justifications of every decision ever made and every character trait ever developed. The beginning could have gone either way in terms of quality, but once the plot started sagging down in a heap of moral self-righteousness, I knew that the narrative was doomed to continue down similar lines until everyone left was a je ne sais quois piece of perfection and everyone not had been packed off to either a foreign country or some other undisclosed obscurity. There were superbly brief gems of insight here and there, and I can well imagine Austen being influenced by this, especially by a certain part for her construction of , but Anglo literature written by women has come a long way since 1801, and a mere decade or so resulted in examples that, to this day, are world's away from 'Belinda' in terms of balancing finely tuned emotional sense, narrative engagement, and truly profound development of theme and character./ As I said in my review of , I don't expect to love or even like all of the old stuff I read for the sake of demographical expansion, but the reception of this work today isn't helped at all by the environment the author worked in, and I do have to say that I am rather curious, per the introduction's discussion, about , which supposedly has the complicated character of Lady Delacour and co. with little, if any, of the morbidly dull redemption story.
'Because I hate to be like other people' said her ladyship, 'who delight in making themselves appear better than they are.[']
Those who persecute, to overturn religion, can scarcely pretend to more philosophy, or more liberality, than those who persecute to support it[.]The day of writing this review has been exceedingly stressful, and unfortunately, I typed this up before I got any closure on various pending issues in my life. As of now, I can only think that it's obscene how much lit by women has been compromised by domineering social forces, and much like the denial that keeps white-washing Heathcliff, artificial constricting of writing allows bigotry to inflate itself in historical representation beyond all bounds of what reality truly consisted of way back when. One probably can't chalk up the horrid antisemitism of a chapter just near the end to anyone other than Edgeworth herself, but the blatant manipulation of the 1801 text still stands and certainly didn't help. In fact, one can still see evidence of the hastily erased racial marriage (unless I missed a cue or two), which goes to show that bigotry couldn't even do its hateful job properly. Ah well. An unusual artifact from more than two centuries ago, and probably controversial enough to merit a more serious evaluation on a broader scale of media than has so far been afforded it.
'But possibly these are only truths for ladies. Doctor X� may be such an ungallant philosopher, as to think some truths are not fit for ladies. He may hold a different language with gentlemen.'
'I should not only be an ungallant but a weak philosopher,' said Dr X�, 'if I thought that truth was not the same for all the world who can understand.[']
April 5, 2023
rep: mixed-race Jamaican British li, Jamaican side character
(i unfortunately read the edited version, but am on a mission to rectify that)
belinda is literally an angel walking on earth, and could do no wrong, which sometimes is trying to read, but she just seems like the personification of patience instead of a mary sue.
the way this novel talks about women's right to choose a partner & to be able to learn their true character before making a decision; about breast cancer and how it impacts a person's life, especially when combined with 'doctors' who are just there to make some money; about not listening to gossip and instead trying to find out the truth... so much is going on here, and it's all delicious. and the writing is honestly good and funny a lot of the time.
on the other hand, a lot of things is irritating, tho most of them can be ascribed to the time this was written in. the love interest constantly judges the mc and needs proof of her good character, instead of, you know, just giving her a benefit of a doubt. the author also set out to write a moral tale & not a novel, and it’s very visible; so many instances of lectures, of characters doing what is the best thing to do instead of what they’re likely to do.
and yes, the second half is somewhat chaotic, to say the least. and the whole thing with virginia? “it’s very easy to condemn from our vantage point in history. and so we condemn! wholeheartedly!� like, i understand it was there to talk about rousseau’s philosophy & i’m glad it at least ended the way it did, but it was still a gross plot line. and the sudden reveal of a certain someone's gambling addiction? truly what the fuck!! the ending itself isn't very satisfactory either but alas
(i unfortunately read the edited version, but am on a mission to rectify that)
belinda is literally an angel walking on earth, and could do no wrong, which sometimes is trying to read, but she just seems like the personification of patience instead of a mary sue.
the way this novel talks about women's right to choose a partner & to be able to learn their true character before making a decision; about breast cancer and how it impacts a person's life, especially when combined with 'doctors' who are just there to make some money; about not listening to gossip and instead trying to find out the truth... so much is going on here, and it's all delicious. and the writing is honestly good and funny a lot of the time.
on the other hand, a lot of things is irritating, tho most of them can be ascribed to the time this was written in. the love interest constantly judges the mc and needs proof of her good character, instead of, you know, just giving her a benefit of a doubt. the author also set out to write a moral tale & not a novel, and it’s very visible; so many instances of lectures, of characters doing what is the best thing to do instead of what they’re likely to do.
and yes, the second half is somewhat chaotic, to say the least. and the whole thing with virginia? “it’s very easy to condemn from our vantage point in history. and so we condemn! wholeheartedly!� like, i understand it was there to talk about rousseau’s philosophy & i’m glad it at least ended the way it did, but it was still a gross plot line. and the sudden reveal of a certain someone's gambling addiction? truly what the fuck!! the ending itself isn't very satisfactory either but alas
October 20, 2015
It's always interesting to read books that Jane Austen read. Belinda was published around the same time that Austen was writing Northanger Abbey (and is namechecked in the "Defense of the Novel") and it clearly influenced her. I have other thoughts about it that I might write up later on.
March 14, 2019
My review:
March 15, 2024
Before Jane Austen, there was Maria Edgeworth. Written with sparkling wit and humor, this book deals with the follies and frolics of English high society and the intricate dilemmas of courtship, marriage, and family in the regency period. Underneath the glitz and glamour is a moral tale, exploring what it means to live prudently and rightly, and what constitutes true familial happiness. Jane Austen loved this book, and I had great fun drawing parallels between scenes and characters in this novel with ones from Austen's works. I thoroughly enjoyed this story until the last fourth of the book which includes a subplot I didn't like as much, and the pacing and plot suffered a bit in my opinion. But I still give it 5 stars overall because it was a fun, Austenesque discovery.
May 14, 2019
So. Hmm. I liked so many things about this book. But, most of them happened in the first half. In the second half, all the things I liked were revealed to be terrible and immoral. I liked the sharp-tongued ladies who dressed up in men's clothes and fought a duel. I liked the rakish flirt. I liked the biracial marriage which seemed incredibly bold for a woman writer in 1801.
But then some of the most interesting, complex characters were reformed and the rest met bad ends. I found out that the biracial marriage was scrapped in subsequent editions of the book. And then the book culminates in a wildly racist and violent encounter between a Jewish moneylender and a slave from the West Indies which included every horrifying stereotype of both groups. This I did not love.
I try not to judge books by the moral standards of my era but this was so out of step with the rest of the book's more progressive tone that it was jarring. I did read that this scene caused a reader to write an impassioned letter to Edgeworth scolding her for her anti-Semitism which Edgeworth responded to apologetically. She seems to have so taken the criticism to heart that she wrote a book later in which the depiction of Jewish people was pointedly destigmatized. That was heartening.
Overall I did like the book. It probably deserves a second read but it won't get one. I would, however, like to read one of her Irish novels.
But then some of the most interesting, complex characters were reformed and the rest met bad ends. I found out that the biracial marriage was scrapped in subsequent editions of the book. And then the book culminates in a wildly racist and violent encounter between a Jewish moneylender and a slave from the West Indies which included every horrifying stereotype of both groups. This I did not love.
I try not to judge books by the moral standards of my era but this was so out of step with the rest of the book's more progressive tone that it was jarring. I did read that this scene caused a reader to write an impassioned letter to Edgeworth scolding her for her anti-Semitism which Edgeworth responded to apologetically. She seems to have so taken the criticism to heart that she wrote a book later in which the depiction of Jewish people was pointedly destigmatized. That was heartening.
Overall I did like the book. It probably deserves a second read but it won't get one. I would, however, like to read one of her Irish novels.
November 5, 2015
I rather enjoyed this Austen-era novel. Edgeworth does not reach Austen's literary heights, but she tells a good story, and I can see why Jane would have appreciated her (Belinda is mentioned in Northanger Abbey). The readers in this production were of varied quality, but I was never tempted to choke any of them. I will note, however, that, as a general principle, most American readers should not attempt English accents.
My most persistent thought throughout was, "Why hasn't the BBC miniseriesed this?" Get the folks who've run out of Elizabeth Gaskell novels to adapt, and set them to work rehabilitating Edgeworth for the twenty-first century. It's not quite the sow's ear the novel Cranford is, and they did wonders silk-pursifying that, so I have great hopes for what Belinda could become in the right hands. I occasionally hear complaints that period dramas are altogether too white, and here's one with a major black character and an interracial relationship that raised some eyebrows when the book was first published. The author's father, who served as her editor, changed some details to make it more palatable in a later edition. The original content could be reinstated for a screen production, and problems with the plot and characters could be cleaned up to make a better story.
tl;dr: OK novel that could be fantastic on screen.
My most persistent thought throughout was, "Why hasn't the BBC miniseriesed this?" Get the folks who've run out of Elizabeth Gaskell novels to adapt, and set them to work rehabilitating Edgeworth for the twenty-first century. It's not quite the sow's ear the novel Cranford is, and they did wonders silk-pursifying that, so I have great hopes for what Belinda could become in the right hands. I occasionally hear complaints that period dramas are altogether too white, and here's one with a major black character and an interracial relationship that raised some eyebrows when the book was first published. The author's father, who served as her editor, changed some details to make it more palatable in a later edition. The original content could be reinstated for a screen production, and problems with the plot and characters could be cleaned up to make a better story.
tl;dr: OK novel that could be fantastic on screen.
July 12, 2017
I am wholly discontented with the ending. First, it is unutterably creepy that Clarence Hervey basically kidnaps a young virginal girl to bring her up in his way of thinking. Is it feminist to realize at the last second that airhead girls don't make good wives and he would rather marry a woman he can talk to and respect? Yes. Is it still super creepy? YES. Belinda should have run into the arms of her other lover, Mr. Vincent. Is Mr. Vincent a gambler? Yes. Is he guilty of being a slave owner? Yes. HOWEVER, Mr. Vincent's dubious racial background ("Creole" sometimes means half-black, and with God as my witness I want to live in a world where people recognize Heathcliff and Mr. Vincent are NOT WHITE) means a marriage between an English lady and a mixed-race man. Which is about as amazing as the marriage between Juba, the Jamaican slave, and the white maid that IS ACTUALLY CANON (no takebacksies, Edgeworth, you'll rip this marriage from my cold dead hands).
Moral: All of the men in this book (Mr. Percival excepted) are horrible choices, and Belinda should have scorned all of them and lived alone writing philosophy and bantering with Lady Delacour.
Moral: All of the men in this book (Mr. Percival excepted) are horrible choices, and Belinda should have scorned all of them and lived alone writing philosophy and bantering with Lady Delacour.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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