ABSTRACT
In his examination of dozens of books that were written between 1830 and 1860 and that feature servants, Stephen Garrett Bolger finds an Irish character that while fleeting, is fairly consistent. Most often, she is called “Bridget” or “Biddy.” She has a thick brogue and a dual nature: “noisy, careless, and untidy on the one hand, and good-hearted, faithful, and shrewd on the other”. Bessy Conway opens in 1838, on the happy Conway family farm in County Tipperary. Following a job offer in America, Bessy decides to emigrate, not out of desperation but “to see the world”. Bessy encounters Henry Herbert, a Protestant and son of the Conways’ landlord, as the two sail across the Atlantic. Examples that Sadlier presents in Bessy Conway extend beyond the well-lived life to encompass claims to superiority—on moral, intellectual, and also on ethnic and racial planes.
