Belinda

Exploring themes of gender and race, the narrative follows Belinda, a young woman navigating courtship and societal expectations. Living with the fashionable Lady Delacour, she encounters various views on marriage and women's roles, which inspire her quest for independence and empowerment, echoing Mary Wollstonecraft's ideals. Although later editions of the work softened some controversial elements, Edgeworth's influence on subsequent writers like Sir Walter Scott and William Makepeace Thackeray helped expand the scope of the female novel.