When Adeline Mowbray puts her mother Editha’s radical theories into practice by eloping with, but not marrying, a notorious writer, the mother and daughter are estranged for many years, but finally reconciled. As its subtitle suggests, Adeline Mowbray, or The Mother and Daughter begins and ends with their story, but its complex plot encompasses almost every other human relationship. This engaging novel explores many issues important in the Romantic period, from women’s education to the ethics of slavery and colonialism.

This Broadview Edition uses the first edition of 1805 as its copy text, but also includes important variants from the 1810 and 1844 editions. The appendices include contemporary reviews and material expanding on the novel’s themes of women’s education, marriage, slavery, and the tension between feeling and reason.

Amelia Opie's profile page

Helen M. Buss is a professor of English at the University of Calgary. Her book on Canadian women’s life writing, Mapping Our Selves, won the Gabrielle Roy Prize. As Margaret Clarke, she has published novels, short stories and poetry.

Anne McWhir's profile page

“Anne McWhir’s new edition of Amelia Opie’s Adeline Mowbray deftly positions the text in its larger cultural and global context. It also pays notable attention to the author’s revisions of the text over the course of the nineteenth century, thus leading us to consider the ways in which conventions associated with the Victorian novel evolve out of Romantic-era fiction.” — Roxanne Eberle, University of Georgia