Amelia Opie

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Amelia Opie

British novelist and poet

Also known as: Amelia Alderson

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last Updated: Nov 28, 2024 • Article History

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Née:: Alderson

Born:: November 12, 1769, Norwich, Norfolk, England

Died:: December 2, 1853, Norwich (aged 84)

Notable Works:: “Adeline Mowbray”; “Father and Daughter”

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Amelia Opie (born November 12, 1769, Norwich, Norfolk, England—died December 2, 1853, Norwich) was a British novelist and poet whose best work, Father and Daughter (1801), influenced the development of the 19th-century popular novel. Opie was the daughter of a physician. She had no formal schooling but moved in intellectual circles that included William Godwin, Mary Wollstonecraft, Sydney Smith, Madame de Staël, and John Horne Tooke. In 1798 she married John Opie, a self-educated painter. Between 1790 and 1834 Opie wrote 13 works of prose—including Adeline Mowbray, 3 vol. (1804), based on the life of Wollstonecraft, and Valentine’s Eve, 3 ...(100 of 128 words)

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