Kenilworth: Natural Daughters and Deserted Children …

… with Summer Refreshments

Natural Daughters and Deserted Children: Jane Austen, Maria Edgeworth and Eighteenth-Century Illegitimacy

Speaker: Dr Kate Croft

Jane Austen and Maria Edgeworth were among the most popular authors of the early 1800s. Today, Austen is widely remembered for her witty, romantic novels, while Edgeworth has faded from mainstream readership. Yet both writers tackled controversial themes, including the issue of illegitimacy. This talk examines how Austen and Edgeworth portrayed illegitimacy in their fiction and how their work challenged dominant views about “fallen women” and their children. Edgeworth was the daughter of Lunar Society member, Richard Lovell Edgeworth.

Dr Kate Croft is a researcher and lecturer at the Centre for West Midlands History, University of Birmingham, and has talked to us before about the Wives and Daughters of the Lunar Society, and about the adventurous Sabrina Sidney.