Miss Edgeworth's novels are distinguished by good sense, humour and an easy flowing style. As the construction of a plot is not her strong point, she is generally more successful in tales than in lengthy novels. The vivacity of her dialogues is extraordinary; and in them her characters reveal themselves in the most natural way possible. Her books are character-studies rather than intensely interesting narratives. Sobriety of judgment is seen throughout; and passion, romance and poetry rarely, if ever, shed their lustre on her pages. Three of her aims were to paint national manners, to enforce morality, and to teach fashionable society by satirizing the lives of the idle and worldly. She expressly calls some of her stories "Moral Tales"; but they all fall under this category. In her pages the heroic virtues give place to prudence, industry, kindness and sweetness of temper. There are few instances of overwhelming emotions or tumultuous passions in her works; and it is remarkable how little the love of nature appears. She never uses material which does not yield some direct moral lesson. But the freshness of her stories, her insight into character, lively dialogues, originality of invention, and delightfully clear style render it quite possible to read her works in succession without any sense of weariness. Among the many sweet memories her unsullied pages have bequeathed to the world, not the least precious is her own noble character, which ever responded to all that is best and most enduring in human nature. See _A Memoir of Maria Edgeworth, with a Selection from her Letters_ (1867), by her stepmother, F.A. Edgeworth, privately printed. A selection from this was made by Augustus J.C. Hare, and printed under the title of _The Life and Letters of Maria Edgeworth_ (2 vols., 1894). See also _Maria Edgeworth_ (1883), by Helen Zimmern, in the "Eminent Women" series; Grace A. Oliver, _A Study of Maria Edgeworth_ ... (3rd ed., Boston, U.S.A., 1882); and _Maria Edgeworth_ (1904), by the Hon. Emily Lawless in the "English Men of Letters" series. Among the numerous shorter articles dealing with Maria Edgeworth and the family circle at Edgeworthstown may be mentioned a friendly appreciation of Miss Edgeworth's novels by George Saintsbury in _Macmillan's Magazine_ (July 1895), and a charming description of her family circle and surroundings in the preface supplied by Lady Thackeray Ritchie to Macmillan's edition of the novels (1895).