On the surface there is a great deal that unites the heroes who populate the novels written by women between 1778 and 1818, not the least of which is the domestic role that these gentlemen must play. Smith's heroes fit into the pessimistic model Burney establishes with Delvile. In Desmond, the hero has inherited his father's estate, and though he embraces revolutionary republicanism, he exhibits chivalric symptoms in his possessive obsession with Geraldine and her purity. Essentially, Burney, Smith, West, Edgeworth, and Austen have been engaged in a long-running feminist family romance, one with private and public significance. With West there is a shift away from heroes repressed by paternal influence. Edmund Herbert is remarkable for his independence in The Advantages of Education. The path to masculine reformation and gentlemanly independence is established as professionalization in Ennui, making the professionalized gentleman, an innovation in itself, a logical hero for The Absentee.