![]() Samuel Johnson commented on the moral obligation of fiction writers to instruct the minds of young readers: “These books are written chiefly to the young, the ignorant, and the idle, to whom they serve as lectures of conduct, and introductions into life” (Johnson, Rambler No. Indeed, much of the British literary world agreed. Lord Francis Jeffrey is quoted as saying the following about British fiction during the mid to late eighteenth century:Ī greater mass of trash and rubbish never disgraced the press of any country than the ordinary novels that filled and supported the circulating library down nearly to the time of Miss Edgeworth’s first appearance… There had been Miss Burney’s Evelina and Cecilia…But the staple of our novel market was beyond imagination despicable, and had consequently sunk and degraded the whole department of literature of which it had usurped the name. ![]() These sensationalized novels were widely scorned by polite society and considered indecent because they were thought to promote sinful thoughts and immoral behavior. The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) by Ann Radcliffe. ![]()
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