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‘A Man Obscurely Situated’: S amuel R ichardson, Autobiography and ‘The History of Mrs B eaumont’
Author(s) -
CURRAN LOUISE
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal for eighteenth‐century studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.129
H-Index - 11
eISSN - 1754-0208
pISSN - 1754-0194
DOI - 10.1111/j.1754-0208.2012.00546.x
Subject(s) - biography , literature , situated , history of literature , work (physics) , art , history , art history , computer science , engineering , artificial intelligence , mechanical engineering
This article considers S amuel R ichardson's final fictional work, ‘The History of Mrs B eaumont’, a story removed from his last published novel, Sir C harles G randison (1753‐4), that now survives in manuscript form (following partial publication in 1804). It explores R ichardson's interest in different forms of life‐writing, draws attention to the quasi‐autobiographical nature of this work and argues that ‘Mrs B eaumont’ demonstrates a new interest in the way personal history could be used in fictional practice. The article concludes that, though fragmentary and neglected by critics to date, the work is a significant part of the novelist's literary oeuvre.