Lifespan: 1783- 14 April 1859
Nationality: Irish
Types of Work: Novels, Travelogue, Poetry
Other Names: Miss Owenson, S.O.
Bio:
Syndey Owenson was born about 1783 in Dublin, Ireland to Robert Owenson and Jane Hill. Her father was a professional actor who was celebrated for his comic performances. He gave his daughter the best advantages of education that he could procure. When she was just a child, Sydney published a small volume of poems and a book of Irish melodies. At sixteen, she published her first novel, St. Clair, or the Heiress of Desmond. Shortly after she published The Novice of St. Dominick and then, in 1801, her most popular novel, The Wild Irish Girl. Within the first two years of its publication, it went to seven editions.
In 1812, she married Sir Charles Morgan, a medical doctor and a man of considerable literary talents himself. The two traveled abroad and Sydney published her own Travelogue describing their experiences in France and Italy. Her Italy drew praises from Lord Byron for its excellence and fidelity to the scenes in her descriptions.
In 1840, she published two volumes of Woman and her Master, a work which she had intended to be a multi-volume history of women. Suffering from decreasing eye-sight, the work was never finished.
Sydney evinced strong national feeling and most of her works are warm defenses of her native country during a time when Ireland was ill-favored by English society.
Sydney died on 14 April 1859 and was buried in Brompton Cemetery, London. Before her death, she and a friend wrote her auto-biography.
References: Woman's Record, or, Sketches of All Distinguished Women
A more detailed biography is available on Wikipedia.
Novels:
St. Clair, or the Heiress of Desmond (1796)
The Novice of St. Dominick
The Wild Irish Girl (1801)
Ida
The Missionary
O'Donell
Florence Macarthy, an Irish Tale (1818)
The O'Briens and the O'Flahertys (1827)
The Princess
Luxima, The Prophetess, a Tale of India