Leonora

by Maria Edgeworth

The plot of the novel centres on the newly married Leonora and her decision to bring back to England a woman who had been exiled to France. The woman, Olivia, is known as a "coquette," and her controversial behaviour with regard to her marriage had driven her to France, where she cultivated an aristocratic, "French" sensibility that exists apart from conventional morality. Wikipedia)

Genres: Classics, Romance, Fiction, Novels, British Literature, English Literature

313 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1806

About the author

Maria Edgeworth was an Anglo-Irish gentry-woman, born in Oxfordshire and later resettling in County Longford. She eventually took over the management of her father's estate in Ireland and dedicated herself to writing novels that encouraged the kind treatment of Irish tenants and the poor by their landlords.

Reviews

[Kirk · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rating for the plot, not for the writing, as Edgeworth is usually pretty solid on that front. Heavily didactic, and basically boils down to "beware of French ladies and their loose morals." And I'm not quite sure it's a happy ending with what a jackhole Leonora's husband turned out to be.

[samarina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Como já diria o pensador contemporâneo Rennan da Penha:

"Então para de falar que ele é seu
Marido dos outros não é presente de Deus
Talarica
'Tava sentando no macho da tua amiga
E tu vai tomar um pau."

Obviamente bem escrito, mas além da narrativa espistolar(que eu particularmente não curto tanto), teve como enredo principal assuntos que me irritam muito: cornas mansas e homens adúlteros.

**disclaimer: sei como eram as coisas naquela época e que mulher não podia fazer muita coisa a não ser aceitar mas!!não sou obrigada a gostar, chega a ser patético o jeito que a Leonora se humilha pelo marido, que tem tanta culpa de traí-la quanto a "amiga" dela.

[Mary Fagan · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable critique of the cult of sensibility and the sentimental novel.