Sophia Briscoe (

fl. ''Floruit'' ( ; usually abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for 'flourished') denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indic ...

1770s) was an English author of two

epistolary novel An epistolary novel () is a novel written as a series of letters between the fictional characters of a narrative. The term is often extended to cover novels that intersperse other kinds of fictional document with the letters, most commonly di ...

s. Little is known of her life. From the official documents available within a reasonable time frame and area of her (limited) known life, it appears that Sophia Briscoe was ‘independent’ in her profession, born in ‘Came County’ and was put on record at age 40. This independence may allude to a career as a writer, despite only producing two pieces of epistolary verse. The next debated record of Briscoe may be one regarding her death, listed in the London Gazette’s Royal Assurance Office on October 5, 1826, at St. Giles’ in Reading, Berkshire. However, as these accounts were not the only listings under this name, this cannot be taken as fact.

Novels

Briscoe was the author of the epistolary novels ''Miss Melmoth; or the New Clarissa'' (1771) and ''The Fine Lady: A Novel'' (sometimes ''The Fine Lady; or a history of Mrs. Montague'', 1772). Briscoe was paid 20

guinea Guinea, officially the Republic of Guinea, is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Guinea-Bissau to the northwest, Senegal to the north, Mali to the northeast, Côte d'Ivoire to the southeast, and Sier ...

s for the copyright of ''The Fine Lady''. A German translation of ''The Fine Lady'' appeared as ''Die Frau nach der Mode'' in

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

, dated 1771. ''Miss Melmoth'' was well received in '' The Critical Review''. The ''

Monthly Review The ''Monthly Review'' is an independent socialist magazine published monthly in New York City. Established in 1949, the publication is the longest continuously published socialist magazine in the United States. History Establishment Following ...

'' mildly commended it. In the twentieth century, Briscoe came to the attention of new readers: she was listed in

Dale Spender Dale Spender (22 September 1943 – 21 November 2023) was an Australian feminist scholar, teacher, writer and consultant. In 1983, Dale Spender was co-founder of and editorial advisor to Pandora Press, the first of the feminist imprints devo ...

's '' Mothers of the Novel: 100 Good Women Writers Before Jane Austen'' (1986) and the treatment of

incest Incest ( ) is sexual intercourse, sex between kinship, close relatives, for example a brother, sister, or parent. This typically includes sexual activity between people in consanguinity (blood relations), and sometimes those related by lineag ...

in ''Miss Melmoth'' (Caroline Melmoth shies away from marrying Sir John Evelin instinctively, before discovering their relationship) has been discussed along with other aspects by at least one contemporary critic. Both novels are available in print-on-demand editions.

Attribution

It has been speculated that ''The Sylph'', a novel published in 1778 and attributed to

Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire (née Spencer; ; 7 June 1757 – 30 March 1806), was an English aristocrat, socialite, political organiser, author, and activist. Born into the Spencer family, married into the Cavendish family, she wa ...

, was written by Briscoe. A receipt at the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

suggests the publisher T. Lowndes paid Briscoe £12 for it, but it is thought likelier on stylistic grounds that Briscoe simply served as an intermediary, so that the Duchess could retain her anonymity. The novel has its champions to this day.

Letter to Pitt?

Little further is known of Sophia Briscoe. It is not possible to say whether the person who wrote from

Leyton Leyton ( ) is a town in East London, England, within the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It borders Walthamstow to the north, Leytonstone to the east, and Stratford to the south, with Clapton, Hackney Wick and Homerton, across the Ri ...

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

, to

William Pitt the Younger William Pitt (28 May 1759 – 23 January 1806) was a British statesman who served as the last prime minister of Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain from 1783 until the Acts of Union 1800, and then first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, p ...

on 14 December 1797, on the subject of taxation, was the novelist or a namesake.Sophia Briscoe to W. Pitt, 14 December 1797. Chatham Papers, British National Archives, Vol. 264, f. 168. Quoted in Dror Wahrman: ''Imagining the Middle Class...'' (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1995).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Briscoe, Sophia English women novelists 18th-century English women writers 18th-century English writers 18th-century English novelists 18th-century births Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown