Amelia Opie

Amelia Opie (1769–1853) was an English novelist, poet, and abolitionist whose works include The Father and Daughter (1801).

Connect

The Father and Daughter: Amelia Opie’s 1801 novel tells of a young woman’s ruin and her father’s grief. This novel became one of Opie’s best-known explorations of seduction, remorse, and family relationships.
John Opie: An English portrait painter, member of the Royal Academy, and Amelia Opie’s husband. Their marriage linked Opie’s literary life to the London art world.
Norwich: A city in eastern England and the historic county town of Norfolk. Opie was born and raised in Norwich, which remained a home throughout much of her life.
Sentimental novel: A novel that foregrounds emotion and sympathy as guides to moral judgment. Opie used emotional storytelling to make characters’ suffering a basis for ethical reflection.
Adeline Mowbray: Amelia Opie’s 1805 novel follows a woman whose pursuit of radical ideas brings social and personal consequences. Its heroine’s unconventional beliefs expose Opie’s interest in women’s choices and social judgment.
William Godwin: An English political philosopher and novelist associated with philosophical anarchism and the radical circles of the 1790s. Opie moved among the radical literary circles in which Godwin was a prominent figure.
Norwich School of Painters: A group of landscape artists active in Norwich in the early nineteenth century. Opie’s Norwich connections placed her near a distinctive regional artistic community.
Women’s writing in the Romantic period: Literature written by women during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in Britain and Europe. Opie’s career belongs to a period when women authors expanded the reach of fiction and poetry.
The Black Man’s Lament: Amelia Opie’s 1826 antislavery poem presents the suffering of an enslaved African man. The poem shows Opie using verse to condemn slavery and appeal to public feeling.
Mary Wollstonecraft: An English writer and philosopher whose works argued for women’s education and political equality. Wollstonecraft’s ideas formed part of the intellectual milieu Opie encountered in radical London.