ABSTRACT
Nature and Art, frankly revolutionary in tone, is less psychologically acute and thought less successful now, though Inchbald's contemporaries praised it highly The story begins with two brothers who make their way after their father's death. Henry, a fiddler, supports William until the latter has risen to a deanship; the resentment he receives in return prompts him to leave England for Africa. Later, Henry's "naturally" educated son returns to live under his uncle's protection in England and there meets his cousin, William, whose "artificial" education has molded him in the image of his own calculating father. The opposition between the two persists as William seduces a virtuous woman and later (as judge) sentences her for the prostitution he forced on her, and Henry first delivers his father from his African exile and then marries his faithful Rebecca.
