The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Book of Sibyls, by
Anne Thackeray (Mrs. Richmond Ritchie)

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Title: A Book of Sibyls
Miss Barbauld, Miss Edgeworth, Mrs Opie, Miss Austen

Author: Anne Thackeray (Mrs. Richmond Ritchie)

Release Date: November 9, 2009 [EBook #30435]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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A BOOK OF SIBYLS

MRS BARBAULD MISS EDGEWORTH

MRS OPIE MISS AUSTEN

BY

MISS THACKERAY
(MRS RICHMOND RITCHIE)

LONDON
SMITH, ELDER, & CO., 15 WATERLOO PLACE
1883

[_All rights reserved_]

[_Reprinted from the Cornhill Magazine_]

_TO_

_MRS OLIPHANT_

_My little record would not seem to me in any way complete without your
name, dear Sibyl of our own, and as I write it here, I am grateful to
know that to mine and me it is not only the name of a Sibyl with deep
visions, but of a friend to us all._
_A. T. R._

PREFACE.

Not long ago, a party of friends were sitting at luncheon in a suburb
of London, when one of them happened to make some reference to Maple
Grove and Selina, and to ask in what county of England Maple Grove was
situated. Everybody immediately had a theory. Only one of the company (a
French gentleman, not well acquainted with English) did not recognise
the allusion. A lady sitting by the master of the house (she will, I
hope, forgive me for quoting her words, for no one else has a better
right to speak them) said, 'What a curious sign it is of Jane Austen's
increasing popularity! Here are five out of six people sitting round a
table, nearly a hundred years after her death, who all recognise at once
a chance allusion to an obscure character in one of her books.'

It seemed impossible to leave out Jane Austen's dear household name
from a volume which concerned women writing in the early part of this
century, and although the essay which is called by her name has already
been reprinted, it is added wi