ABSTRACT
First published anonymously in 1816 by Darton, Harvey & Darton, and entering a second edition with the same publisher in 1818, Buds of Genius has been attributed to the poet Sarah Candler, daughter of Elizabeth and William Candler, a Quaker educator of Ipswich, Suffolk. Buds of Genius takes the form of dialogues between a mother and her chil-dren, Henry and Louisa. ‘The form of dialogues’, the preface explains, ‘was made choice of, on account of the opportunity it affords for incidental remarks, and because it is considered the best adapted to the purpose of instruction in read-ing. Children that are entirely confined to narrative, are apt to fall into a tedious monotony; but dialogues oblige them to acquire an easy utterance, and an agree-able modulation of the voice’. In contrast to a number of the historical subjects in this text, who rose to prominence from humble beginnings, Henry and Louisa are clearly leading a comfortable middle-class existence.
