Date: 1782
"Compared with the general lot of human misery, Cecilia had suffered nothing; but compared with the exaltation of ideal happiness, she had suffered much; willingly, however, would she again have borne all that had distressed her, experienced the same painful suspence, endured the same melancholy ...
preview | full record— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)
Date: 1782
"But fifteen summers had she bloomed, and her heart was an easy conquest; yet, once made mine, it resisted all allurement to infidelity."
preview | full record— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)
Date: 1782
"Heavens! what a life of struggle between the head and the heart! how cruel, how unnatural a war between the intellects and the feelings!"
preview | full record— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)
Date: 1788
"But against this dangerous attack she endeavoured to fortify that sensible heart, by considering the probable event of her yielding to it."
preview | full record— Smith, Charlotte (1749-1806)
Date: 1788
"Cursed be the hour I first indulged it, and cursed the weakness of mind that cannot conquer it!"
preview | full record— Smith, Charlotte (1749-1806)
Date: 1788
"she hoped that absence and reflection, together with the conviction of it's being hopeless, would conquer this infant passion before it could gather strength wholly to ruin his repose."
preview | full record— Smith, Charlotte (1749-1806)
Date: 1788
"I attempted, indeed, at the beginning of our acquaintance--ah! how vainly attempted!--to conquer a passion which I believed was rendered hopeless by your prior engagement."
preview | full record— Smith, Charlotte (1749-1806)
Date: 1790
"She was a woman of infinite art, devoted to pleasure, and of an unconquerable spirit."
preview | full record— Radcliffe [née Ward], Ann (1764-1823)
Date: 1790
"A variety of strong and contending emotions struggled at her breast, and suppressed the power of utterance."
preview | full record— Radcliffe [née Ward], Ann (1764-1823)
Date: 1790
"Alas! when an impassioned mind, wounded by indifference, attempts recrimination, it is like a naked and bleeding Indian attacking a man arrayed in complete armour, whose fortified bosom no stroke can penetrate, while every blow which indignant anguish rashly aims, recoils on the unguarded heart."
preview | full record— Williams, Helen Maria (1759-1827)