Maria Edgeworth

(1767 - 1849)

A British-born Protestant living in Catholic Ireland, Maria Edgeworth began publishing fiction in 1796. Though her stories often approached social issues with moral frames, she was reluctant to make overt political claims. Scholars have attributed this partially to her sense that politics was a male realm, citing self-deprecating remarks such as “I am like the needy knife grinder, I have no story to tell.”