Among early-nineteenth-century short-fiction writers, perhaps no other author produced as eclectic a body of work as Amelia Opie. From her early tales of domestic fiction to her later stories, which are almost exclusively of a morally didactic nature, Opie's diverse contributions to Romantic short fiction can be seen as representative of a time in which many authors were attempting to come to terms with societal changes and to reflect those changes in their works. While Opie's fiction defies strict categorization, her work, as a reviewer for the British Critic noted in September 1818, "is distinguished by a simplicity of language, a fidelity of description, a justness of sentiment, a consistency of character, and a liberality of opinion, which cannot fail to infix on any work, in which they are found the stamp and impress of genuine excellence."

Born in Norwich on 12 November 1769, Amelia Alderson was the only child of...