The Memoirs of Miss Sidney Bidulph was hugely popular in circulating libraries in the years after its publication, and its emotional intensity was often remarked upon; Samuel Johnson wrote to Frances Sheridan, "I know not, Madam! that you have a right, upon moral principles, to make your readers suffer so much." Sheridan traces Sidney Bidulph's development in a complex epistolary novel spanning much of the protagonist's life, and explores the tension between sexual desire and prescribed female conduct.
In addition to an introduction that places the novel in the context of Sheridan's feminism and of the early novel, this edition provides material on discourses of female conduct, letters between Sheridan and Samuel Richardson, and contemporary reviews.
- ISBN10 1986842541
- ISBN13 9781986842549
- Publish Date 29 March 2018 (first published 17 June 2004)
- Publish Status Active
- Imprint Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
- Format Paperback (US Trade)
- Pages 714
- Language English