Description
The end of the Romantic era and the early 19th century was a period when many women began adopting radical thinking, as times progressed to bring a slightly more modern view on life and society. Amelia Opie Adeline Mowbray was one of the novels which assisted this change to be implemented, albeit not without presenting a broader view of the story, from both the standpoint of its main protagonist and those who had condemned her.The book tells the story of Adeline Mowbray, a young woman who was strongly influenced by her mother to adopt a more radical line of thinking. However, when she decided to put her thinking into practice by moving in together, outside of marriage, with philosopher Frederic Glenmurray, everyone who knew her, including her dear mother, condemned her because of her actions.The story is loosely based on Opies friends, Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin, the latter being one of the leading philosophers of Opies time. The two had similarly stayed together in a relationship outside of marriage for an entire year before they finally decided to marry in 1797. The characters in the story take it one step further, however, with Adeline adopting Glenmurrays beliefs and straying away from any social bonds that he considered to be extremely constrictive and limiting to the human soul.Amelia Opie (1769 1853) was an accomplished author in the Romantic period and at the beginning of the 1800s, and had written numerous novels that were inspired by her thoughts regarding womens place in society, various sociological and psychological issues, abolitionism and the ideals of romantic love held in that time period.