Maria Edgeworth and Abolition

This Palgrave Pivot offers new readings of Maria Edgeworth’s representations of slavery. It shows how Edgeworth employed satiric technique and intertextual allusion to represent discourses of slavery and abolition as a litmus test of character – one that she invites readers to use on themselves. Over the course of her career, Edgeworth repeatedly indicted hypocritical and hyperbolic misappropriation of the sentimental rhetoric that dominated the slavery debate. This book offers new readings