Mrs E. M. Foster

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Standard Name: Foster, Mrs E. M.
Nothing is known about the life of Foster (MEMF ), whose works were published with very limited information about the author. Authorship was indicated sometimes by initials (E.M.F) but mainly via chains of allusions to other texts (By the author of . . . ), making definitive attribution difficult. Novels in these sometimes contradictory chains of attribution were published in the years 1795-1817. There are eight or ten novels generally accepted to be by Foster as well as six others of more dubious attribution. MEMF published exclusively in the novel genre, beginning with historical novels with gothic and melodramatic elements, and moving to sentimental courtship fiction. The novels' settings include a variety of British locations as well as European and colonial locales and often use the motif of long-lost relatives. They cite or reference a wide range of literary works, mostly by men. Overall they promote mainstream Christian morals, often using an ironic or satirical approach to genre, manners, and morals and frequently featuring a narrator who identifies as a woman (sometimes as an Old Maid)
Foster, Mrs E. M. Rebecca. William Lane, Minerva-Press , 1799, 2 vols.
2: 308
with a kind of proto-feminist perspective.

Connections

Connections Sort descending Author name Excerpt
Publishing Medora Gordon Byron
A second edition was advertised (together with its sequel, The Englishman), in Mrs E. M. Foster 's Substance and Shadow, Minerva 1812.
Publishing Medora Gordon Byron
The title-page listed the names of all Miss Byron's previous novels (but not Celia in Search of a Husband). The new work was a sequel to English-Woman (of which a second edition was...
Textual Production Susanna Haswell Rowson
As the author of The Inquisitor, SHR published at London Rebecca, a bildungsroman whose model not-quite-lower-class heroine educates herself at a circulating library; of this edition no copies are known.
Mrs E. M. Foster

Timeline

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Texts

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