Sophia Briscoe (
fl.
''Floruit'' (; abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for "they flourished") denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indicatin ...
1770s) was an English author of two
epistolary novels. Little is known of her life.
Novels
Briscoe was the author of the epistolary novels ''Miss Melmoth; or the New Clarissa'' (1771) and ''The Fine Lady: A Novel'' (sometimes ''The Fine Lady; or a history of Mrs. Montague'', 1772).
Briscoe was paid 20
guinea
Guinea ( ),, fuf, 𞤘𞤭𞤲𞤫, italic=no, Gine, wo, Gine, nqo, ߖߌ߬ߣߍ߫, bm, Gine officially the Republic of Guinea (french: République de Guinée), is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the we ...
s for the copyright of ''The Fine Lady''.
A German translation of ''The Fine Lady'' appeared as ''Die Frau nach der Mode'' in
Leipzig, dated 1771.
''Miss Melmoth'' was well received in ''
The Critical Review''. The ''
Monthly Review
The ''Monthly Review'', established in 1949, is an independent socialist magazine published monthly in New York City. The publication is the longest continuously published socialist magazine in the United States.
History Establishment
Following ...
'' mildly commended it. In the twentieth century, Briscoe came to the attention of new readers: she was listed in
Dale Spender's ''
Mothers of the Novel: 100 Good Women Writers Before Jane Austen'' (1986) and the treatment of
incest in ''Miss Melmoth'' (Caroline Melmoth shies away from marrying Sir John Evelin instinctively, before discovering their relationship) has been discussed along with other aspects by at least one contemporary critic. Both novels are available in print-on-demand editions.
Attribution
It has been speculated that ''The Sylph'', a novel published in 1778 and attributed to
Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire, was written by Briscoe. A receipt at the
British Library suggests the publisher T. Lowndes paid Briscoe £12 for it, but it is thought likelier on stylistic grounds that Briscoe simply served as an intermediary, so that the Duchess could retain her anonymity.
The novel has its champions to this day.
Letter to Pitt?
Little further is known of Sophia Briscoe. It is not possible to say whether the person who wrote from
Leyton,
Essex, to
William Pitt the Younger on 14 December 1797, on the subject of taxation, was the novelist or a namesake.
[Sophia Briscoe to W. Pitt, 14 December 1797. Chatham Papers, ]British National Archives
The National Archives (TNA, cy, Yr Archifau Cenedlaethol) is a non-ministerial government department, non-ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. Its parent department is the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sp ...
, Vol. 264, f. 168. Quoted in Dror Wahrman: ''Imagining the Middle Class...'' (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1995).
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Briscoe, Sophia
English women novelists
18th-century English women writers
18th-century English writers
18th-century English novelists
18th-century births
Year of birth unknown
Year of death unknown