Shortly before her death in 1821, Elizabeth Inchbald, on the advice of her confessor, burned the memoirs on which she had been working since at least 1791. Their loss--particularly to historians of the theater--is cause for regret. A celebrated friend of the famous actors John Philip Kemble and Sarah Siddons and of the influential Jacobin writers Thomas Holcroft and William Godwin, Inchbald was a habituée of London's theatrical and literary circles for almost forty years, as actress, playwright, editor, and novelist. Though she was best known by her contemporaries for her plays--which enjoyed high popularity on the London stage--her two novels, A Simple Story (1791) and Nature and Art (1796), are her most original and important works: nominally thesis pieces about education, they are infused with Inchbald's intimate knowledge of the theater and human emotions to create oddly vigorous studies of the effects of upbringing on personal character. Inchbald's humanitarian...