Sydney Morgan, Lady Morgan

Sydney Morgan, Lady Morgan (born Dec. 25, 1776, Dublin, Ire.—died April 16, 1859, London, Eng.) was an Anglo-Irish novelist who is remembered more for her personality than for her many successful books.

Morgan was the daughter of Robert Owenson, an actor. She became established and was lionized as a popular novelist with The Wild Irish Girl (1806), a paean of praise to Ireland. Because of her popularity, the marchioness of Abercorn made Owenson her lady companion and in 1812 persuaded her to marry Thomas (afterward Sir Thomas) Morgan, the Abercorn family physician. After her marriage to Morgan, she continued to write novels, verse, and essays. O’Donnel (1814), considered her best novel for its realistic treatment of Irish peasant life, was followed by France (1817), a survey of French society and politics. Written in a breezy, journalistic style, the latter work was savagely attacked by the influential Tory Quarterly Review for its praise of the French Revolution. Lady Morgan struck back with Florence McCarthy (1816), a novel in which a Quarterly reviewer is caricatured. The success of France brought her a request to write a similar account of Italy. In preparation for that book she spent more than a year in Italy. That book, entitled simply Italy, was published in 1821 and was also attacked by The Quarterly Review. In 1839 Morgan moved to London, where she became increasingly involved in social life, and she eventually gave up writing altogether.