ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that contrary to many critical assessments of Maria Edgeworth's pedagogical work as a simple regurgitation of her father's ideas, Edgeworth offers in her views on female education a radical revisioning of women's place in society. It devotes much of its discussion to a critical analysis of the current state of female education, particularly the pursuit of 'accomplishments' in the fashionable world. The chapter clarifies the shift in emphasis that is being proposed for women's education, explicitly stating that while the 'masculine pronoun John Locke, has been used for grammatical convenience', they do not 'agree with the prejudiced. The 'true use of books' for girls in the eighteenth-century, especially the use of widely-read novels and romances, was increasingly defined as a means, if not to being 'born immaculate', at least to learning to lead an immaculate, that is, perfectly virtuous and proper life.
