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Amelia Opie

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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AMELIA OPIE (1769-1853), English author, daughter of James Alderson, a physician in Norwich, and was born there on the 12th of November 1769. Miss Alderson had inherited radical principles and was an ardent admirer of Home Tooke. She was intimate with the Kembles and with Mrs Siddons, with Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft. In 1798 she married John Opie, the painter. The nine years of her married life were very happy, although her husband did not share her love of society. He encouraged her to write, and in 1801 she produced a novel entitled Father and Daughter, which showed genuine fancy and pathos. She published a volume of graceful verse in 1802; Adeline Mowbray followed in 1804, Simple Tales in 1806, Temper in 1812, Tales of Real Life in 1813, Valentine's Eve in 1816, Tales of the Heart in 1818, and Madeline in 1822. At length, in 1825, through the influence of Joseph John Gurney, she joined the Society of Friends, and beyond a volume entitled Detraction Displayed, and contributions to periodicals, she wrote nothing more. The rest of her life was spent in travelling and in the exercise of charity. Mrs Opie retained her vivacity to the last, dying at Norwich on the 2nd of December 1853.

A Life, by Miss C. L. Brightwell, was published in 1854.