SOURCE: Introduction to Amelia Opie and Mary Tighe: "Elegy to the Memory of the Late Duke of Bedford"; "Psyche," with Other Poems, in Romantic Context: Poetry; Significant Minor Poetry, 1789-1830, Garland Publishing, Inc., 1978, pp. v-xv.

In the following excerpt, Reiman discusses Opie's purpose in writing fiction, her social concerns expressed in her poetry, and her lack of technical skill in writing poetry.

In any full discussion of the literary career of Amelia Alderson Opie, primary attention would undoubtedly be given to her fiction. Her novels and tales include The Dangers of Coquetry (2 vols., 1790); The Father and Daughter: A Tale in Prose (1801; to which she appended "An Epistle from the Maid of Corinth to Her Lover" and other verse); Adeline Mowbray; or, The Mother and Daughter (3 vols., 1804), based on the career of Mary Wollstonecraft and given by Harriet Westbrook to Shelley in a successful effort to persuade him to...