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LADY SYDNEY MORGAN (c. 1783-1859)

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Originally appearing in Volume V18, Page 835 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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LADY See also:SYDNEY See also:MORGAN (c. 1783-1859)  , See also:British authoress, daughter of See also:Robert Owenson, an Irish actor, was See also:born in 1783 in See also:Dublin . She was one of the most vivid and hotly discussed See also:literary figures of her See also:generation . She began her career with a precocious See also:volume of poems . She collected Irish tunes, for which she composed the words, thus setting a See also:fashion adopted with See also:signal success by Tom See also:Moore . Her St Clair (1804), a novel of See also:ill-judged See also:marriage, ill-starred love, and impassioned nature-See also:worship, in which the See also:influence of See also:Goethe and See also:Rousseau was apparent, at once attracted See also:attention . Another novel, The Novice of Si Dominick (18o6), was also praised for its qualities of See also:imagination and description . But the See also:book which made her reputation and brought her name into warm controversy was The See also:Wild Irish Girl (18o6), in which she appeared as the ardent See also:champion of her native See also:country, a politician rather than a novelist, extolling the beauty of Irish scenery, the richness of the natural See also:wealth of See also:Ireland, and the See also:noble traditions of its See also:early See also:history . She was known in See also:Catholic and Liberal circles by the name of her heroine " Glorvina." Patriotic Sketches and Metrical Fragments followed in 1807 . See also:Miss Owenson entered the See also:household of the See also:marquess of See also:Abercorn, and in 1812, persuaded by See also:Lady Abercorn, she married the surgeon to the household, See also:Thomas See also:Charles See also:Morgan, afterwards knighted; but books still continued to flow from her facile See also:pen . In 1814 she produced her best novel, O'Donnell . She was at her best in her descriptions of the poorer classes, of whom she had a thorough knowledge . Her elaborate study (1817) of See also:France under the See also:Bourbon restoration was attacked with outrageous fury in the Quarterly, the authoress being accused of Jacobinism, falsehood, licentiousness and impiety .

She took her revenge indirectly in the novel of See also:

Florence Macarthy (1818), in which a Quarterly reviewer, See also:Con Crawley, is insulted with supreme feminine ingenuity . See also:Italy, a See also:companion See also:work to her France, was published in 1821; See also:Lord See also:Byron bears testimony to the justness of its pictures of See also:life . The results of See also:Italian See also:historical studies were given in her Life and Times of Salvator See also:Rosa (1823) . Then she turned again to Irish See also:manners and politics with a See also:matter-of-fact book on See also:Absenteeism (1825), and a romantic novel, The O'Briens and the O'Flahertys (1827) . From Lord See also:Melbourne Lady Morgan obtained a See also:pension of £300 . During the later years of her See also:long life she published The Book of the Boudoir (1829), Dramatic Scenes from Real Life (1833), The Princess (1835), Woman and her See also:Master (184o), The Book without a Name (1841), Passages from my Autobiography (1859) . She died on the 14th of See also:April 1859 . Her autobiography and many interesting letters were edited with a memoir by W . Hepworth See also:Dixon in 1862 .

End of Article: LADY SYDNEY MORGAN (c. 1783-1859)
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