Nature and Art - Elizabeth Inchbald

Elizabeth Inchbald was actress, playwright, novelist,\n and brought up a Catholic.\n In the age of revolutions she belonged with the revolutionaries, specifically Godwin and Holcroft, both of whom were shown the first version of Nature and art in 1794 under the title A satire upon the times. It is a novel of social protest,\n in which the primitive is opposed to the civilized and which culminates in the condemnation of a seduced girl by a judge who is also her seducer. Hazlitt comments on Inchbald's 'power over the springs of the heart',\n describing the book as distressing to the feelings and haunting the memory.\n Readers today will find in it a reflection not only of the politics but also,\n in its emphasis on Nature and love, of the literary revolution of the time.\n