Belinda by Maria Edgeworth is another one of those books that was massively popular in its day (1801) and it’s little read and hard to find today. It’s also another one of those books I’m reading for school this semester.

I first encountered Belinda in Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey–it’s one of the books the heroine reads, and there’s a funny line about it: “Oh! It is only a novel!’ replies the young lady…”It is only Cecila, Camilla, or Belinda‘; or, in short, only some work in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed…” And so it goes on.

There are other Belinda/Jane Austen links. Belinda has an unfortunate encounter overhearing the hero, Clarence Hervey, and his friends make unpleasant remarks about her and her family…a la Elizabeth and Darcy. See also Penelope Featherington overhearing Colin Bridgerton declaring that he Will Never Marry Penelope (famous last words!) in Julia Quinn’s Romancing Mr. Bridgerton.

The first line of the book reminds Pride & Prejudice: Mrs Stanhope, a well-bred woman, accomplished in that branch of knowledge, which is called the art of rising in the world, had, with but a small fortune, contrived to live in the highest company. Fortunes, matchmaking, social climbing. What’s not to love?

Belinda isn’t labeled as a romance novel, either because 1) it wasn’t done back then or 2) academics don’t generally study romance novels, so if it must be studied it must be labeled something else. Instead, it’s a “female novel of development”  or female “coming-of-age” novel or a courtship novel. Whatever you call it, the genre was well established by then, as you can tell by the hilariously snarky remarks of some of the characters. I shall repeat my favorite excerpt in full, because it’s just delightful, as you shall see, and because one thing you quickly learn in Grad school is that nothing fills a page faster than block quotes. Without further ado:

“You know it is a ruled case, in all romances, that, when a lover and his mistress go out riding together, some adventure must befall them. The horse must run away with the lady, and the gentleman must catch her in his arms just as her neck is about to be broken. If the horse have been too ill trained for the heroine’s purpose, “some footpad, bandit fierce, or mountaineer”, some jealous rival must make his appearance quite unexpectedly at the turn of a road, and the lady must be carried off, robes flying! hair streaming! like Buerger’s Leanora. Then her lover must come to her rescue just in the proper moment. But, if the damsel cannot conveniently be run away with, she must, as the last resource, tumble into a river to maker herself interesting, and the hero must be at least half drowned in dragging her out, that she may be under eternal obligations to him, and at last be forced to marry him out of pure gratitude.”