This section contains 3,137 words (approx. 11 pages at 300 words per page) |
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Dictionary of Literary Biography on Sarah Scott
In the advertisement to her first novel, The History of Cornelia (1750), Sarah Scott pronounced her approbation of works of the imagination that "have a tendency to inculcate, illustrate or exemplify morality." Throughout the twenty-two years of her writing life, Scott adhered to this rule. Author of six novels and three reputable histories, Scott endeavored constantly--as the narrator of her best-known novel, Millenium Hall (1762), remarks--"to inculcate the best principles into youthful minds, the only probable means of mending mankind." She also translated that dictum into action: in her home at Batheaston, she and her friend Lady Barbara Montagu dedicated themselves to a life of charity work--educating the poor, overseeing their work projects, and leading them in spiritual exercises. It is the serious moral strain of her works that makes Scott's writing distinctive. At once a stylistic weakness--overwhelming most attempts at subtle characterization and dramatization--and a strength--her works, as...
This section contains 3,137 words (approx. 11 pages at 300 words per page) |
![]() |